I really do. It’s terrible. I acknowledge that there is a public nuisance and safety aspect that they bring to the community because of addiction and why people on the other side get frustrated by it, but nobody goes out in life and thinks “I’ll be a homeless drug addict, that’s the way to live”. It’s a product of multiple factors, poverty, etc. And it’s absolutely terrible to try and get clean off substances, especially when you have no home to go to when you’re done.

This is what happens when you have conservative governments. They’re absolutely fine letting these poor people rot.

That’s fucking awful.

I really wish we had very harsh punishment for drug dealers here.

I’m continually afraid they’re going to topple over.

I was downtown today and saw at least 6 people doing it. It’s just infected everything in the city, not just the people who are addicted and suffering, but the public nuisance and safety aspect because of them too. The library today felt so sketchy.

My neighbour who works downtown told me she flat out hates them, she goes outside to smoke and they’re screaming at her to give them one and threatening her when she says no. It’s terrible on both sides.

That’s awful. Holy shit.

It’s apparently a neuromuscular reaction to the drug in the spine. Called the fentanyl fold, someone told me in another comment. I wonder what the long term damage neurologically is.

Aww. It’s so terrible to see them this way, especially because it’s been an exceptionally cold December.

Ohhhhh! I didn’t know that was a thing! Thank you. Fentanyl is a real problem here so of course that would be it.

These poor people. It’s absolutely dreadful what’s happening.

Everything feels like it happens so fast now and yet I have nearly no free time despite all this convenience. I did things one at a time and had to make an effort to do things like shop or go to the bank or pay bills or whatever. I cannot believe how many books I read and all the time I spent in the local library just browsing the stacks of all sorts of random shit; it was not routinely pared down to popular books, but had all sorts of odds and ends. I deliberately listened to music by putting a tape in the machine, and it was active listening. Radio was creative and beautiful. The local bar I spent time at was home to all sorts of burgeoning local bands. Food was not “small plates” at trendy bistros, but was sizeable satisfactory portions of ordinary food. A trip to the mall was an adventure, and my mall even had a library branch in it. You went to fish fry dinners at the Royal Canadian Legion on Fridays. One restaurant we used to go to we had to write our order down on a pad inside the kitchen, and the cook would come and slap your food in front of you. If you phoned someone and they weren’t home, you just phoned later on.

Nothing felt shitty and overly marketed and ads just existed and weren’t tailored to you. Television sitcoms lasted 26 seasons and you had to wait until next week to see the next one.

Even social media was better before Facebook, it felt organic and you made friends for life. Even early Twitter felt like this constant humorous conversation even if you didn’t agree with someone. Nobody was routinely crucified for misstepping in public (not that they shouldn’t sometimes). Things were definitely more generic but didn’t feel fake and marketed and inauthentic. Google was better and actually found things and didn’t just spit out a few results and then start adding unrelated things.

I’m not trying to sing the ballad of the boomer in B Minor; I appreciate convenience. I am tired of seeing bloated companies turn everything into shit. I want art and music and local watering holes to flourish. I want food to be good and satisfying. I don’t want every episode dropped at once. I just want things to slow down.

So my advice is slow down. Do one thing at a time. Go places and do one thing. Go to old restaurants. Go read paper books at the library. Go listen to a band at a bar. Do things. Don’t reduce it all to your phone. This is my goal for the new year is to do things.

They’re morons, and they’re just conservatives who want to smoke weed. Whatever your opinion of size of government, you have to have some central systems to run a society.

I miss Livejournal, the original Livejournal where you were able to tell people intimate things about yourselves and make friends for life.

Sit down, look at the picture of the (child aged) daughter of the person interviewing you, and ask if she’s single.

Pitter patter.

To be fair.

I’m 51 and I have an astonishingly complete long term memory, I can remember parts of being 2 years old, and pretty much everything from age 4 onward. I mean not every single day in kindergarten or anything like that, but I have a pretty good grasp on what my daily life was like most of the time. I kept a friends only online blog for years, and when I’ve reread it, there’s only bits and pieces I don’t immediately remember, nothing significant, but when I read it I have good recall of what happened, it’s just not immediately on the surface of my mind.

My short term memory is sometimes iffy, it’s largely due to stress though from my violent ex, but it improves when I am feeling safer.

I think this is because I read so much.

Buy everyone tickets for our local independent cinema, and feed some unhoused souls.

Everyone was very shocked back in the day at the ending of Seinfeld.

I would like to hear the part about the right wing extremist pipeline if you wouldn’t mind. That’s hard to get out of.

I feel like alcohol really gets away on women. I have known two women who sort of just became casual alcoholics without really noticing, like just suddenly it crept up on them that they were drinking lighter forms of alcohol in significant quantities, but it just all seemed like being social and relaxing, and it wasn’t until they each had in their mid forties a stroke and an aneurysm respectively. Neither of them were drinking to cope with difficulties or anything with a maladaptive intent, it was done in a social fashion only, and then suddenly became a huge problem.

I think drinking for women is different than drinking for men, and I think we have worse outcomes as a result.

I don’t really drink anymore, maybe 2-3 times a year I’ll have a single drink. I never had any sort of habit before but I liked my glass or two of wine on a weekend. But I just felt like it would be better to stop, and it was.

Congratulations on your sobriety, it’s a hard thing to achieve!

Edit: found the article I was thinking of: https://medium.com/gentleblog/why-alcohol-poses-a-greater-danger-to-women-a56bc21496d6