Good for Japan I guess? It’s typically the Conservatives who elect women first, because those are usually the ones who so vehemently oppose a woman candidate. It’s a bit of mind fuckery.

Now let’s see if they either set her up for success, or if she’s out sooner than a head of hakusai.

4/5 - coming of age film about a scrawny, scrappy poor kid. Opening shot is a fight against other kids in a trailer park to level up in status. Or maybe even earlier to my mom standing there pregnant, and then her mom punching her in the stomach upon finding out her teen daughter, though as much as she had tried to shut her away, had somehow gotten herself knocked up. And then following the resulting trail of blood. Regardless, it starts out by getting the shit kicked out of me a few times.

Sprinkle in the multiple times I almost died, slipping on wet cement that had just been coated with muriatic acid, that time a demented kid tightened a noose around my neck, the countless nights I’d wake gasping for air with my chest heaving because we had a cat urine and roach problem and couldn’t afford an inhaler. That one time two girls thought it would be funny to see how long they could hold me underwater, at a pool, of course unsupervised, and only stopping just so as things faded to black and all I heard was this saint of a kid saying to them “Stop! He’s dying!” Nary a parent in sight.

The sex, the drugs the drinking all at 13.

The divorce, the handoffs from family member to family member moving each year. Finally settling into a mountain town in rural Appalachia. Having a town general store purveyor of goods taking me under his wing. Learning a passion for the outdoors and skiing.

Going mudding in a Honda Accord with a bunch of other delinquents. Going streaking after we got stuck. Flash forward to a court house and nearly going to jail for vandalism and other stupid teenage mistakes.

Going back to the area I was raised and finding that everyone had 2 kids and a drinking problem…or worse.

Flash forward to the struggles of leaving my past behind. Failing out of university after 9/11. Constantly watching those two planes smash onto the twin towers in a dark dormitory until it was etched into mind.

And then more struggle to leave my past behind as I sought out a soulmate. Dropping out of the Peace Corps due to it.

Quitting my job and finding a love for cycling. Being given a dog who hated wheels, but even she eventually fell in love with cycling. The smartest, best damn dog in the world.

Nearly dying another handful of times. Motorcycle in the mountain roads of Tennessee, more motorcycle, sliding in the snow with a big rig behind, that time wrecking it the one dumbass time I went for a joyride after drinks. Being on the 3rd floor of a house as it collapsed on a rainy day in high winds and walking out mostly unscathed.

Discovering a love for travel. Still trying to escape my past, but working on it, like really really working on it. I try not to die anymore.

Could call it something like “The dirtbag’s field guide to survival, part one.”

If Daria got a movie and it did pretty well, surely you can.

There are all sorts of classes available at top schools via opencourseware. You can take the highest tier courses that the US has to offer, and become educated. While not degree offering, it still would look great on a CV, if you can somehow prove you did the work.

Free books. A few years ago, I read a free electrical engineering book available on the internet, which I found fascinating. It has been a little helpful in practice as well, but I think it’s just cool to know how capacitors and motors work. Public libraries exist for a reason. Gutenberg is another option.

Many 2 year community colleges are now free tuition if you reside in the state.

And of course, there are still ways to get a degree cheap, if the paper is important to you. I finally landed at WGU 15 years ago and it was very reasonable, and has paid dividends on my original investment.

Greek yogurt, walnuts, craisins, pumpkin seeds, hemp hearts, chia seeds, maybe cinnamon, maybe a dash of honey, possibly some frozen fruit if I feel like waiting for it to thaw a bit. Coffee with a dash of oatmilk.

1. Amendment to get rid of gerrymandering. Districts will be drawn up by statistical models that emphasize culture, values, demographics of the district. Every citizen also gets a vote by mail ballot.
2. Amendment to implement sensible gun control. Not ban guns, as people need some way to fight back against a tyrannical government. And some people truly do need to keep themselves safe from wildlife, crime, etc.
3. Amendment to bring in Puerto Rico and Washington DC as states in the union. If Texas wants to split into East TX and West TX, I’m fine with that too.
4. Law to require 2 years voluntary service. Meals, food, housing, recreational stipend will be provided. Similar to CCC, you’ll learn a trade and build up a camaraderie that will last a lifetime. As a citizen in a country, you should have skin in the game, it gives you a sense of ownership . Bonus is infrastructure gets kept up and senior citizens are cared for. Volunteer groups can be unionized.
5. Gas tax goes up significantly. Seriously, Europe pays $8/gallon. Why the hell do we need to keep it at $3? Tax will pay to build out much needed public transportation and sustainable energy grid infrastructure. We need trains people. If China can do it in a country much more mountainous than ours, we can do it.
6. Wealth tax. Anything over $100 million earnings is taxed progressively at 70% anything above $1B is taxed at 90%. Tax on unrealized gains, but can be balanced by unrealized losses.
7. Abolish tax exempt status for churches. You can be nonprofit, but you will still be taxed. No more slave owning mega-pastors.
8. Amendment to overturn Citizens United. Political contributions will be limited. You want your money to be speech? Sure, do it the old fashioned way and convince enough people to align with your cause.
9. Federal Healthcare for everyone damnit! What the hell is wrong with us!?
10. Give more power back to the states. There will be some cohesive things that we all agree upon that keep the tether of our society together, but New York is not Oklahoma is not Colorado is not Alabama. States should have more power to govern themselves. Think of it like Catalonia in Spain or Scotland in UK. States are the test beds of democracy.

Would I get a second term? Hell no. I’m a change agent technocrat. People like a showman. There’s a reason city planners are divorced from mayors at the municipal level. I come in like a four mile freight train then I go home. Some populist demagogue would probably replace me.

South US, but in the mountains where it is much cooler. SO is vegetarian and I am an omnivore but skew vegetarian, especially at home. I leave heated things out to cool from hot to warm before putting in the fridge. About an hour, maybe 2 when I am being forgetful. Anything over that is taking risk. I’ve had a few nasty bouts of food poisoning before so I skew on the safe side.

My mom on the other hand grew up very differently. Lives by the beach in a much warmer more humid climate. She’ll leave moist dump cakes unrefrigerated for days. She’s more homeopathic than me, says the spices have been used for ages to preserve food. She’s not wrong, but you have to throw in a lot more cinnamon than what our Americanized palate is accustomed to. We are very careful about what we eat when we visit, and even then, small bites to try first.

I’m sure you’ve heard this so many times before. It’s not necessarily the bacteria itself, but their waste products that put you at risk. I’m not sure what the salt content of taco meat is, and if your taco meat is dry or wet, but I do think you may be putting yourself at risk in this particular instance.

Man, Pavel is an absolute badass. How’s this fuckstick even getting traction at all?

Here’s what I think I know, some may be wrong:

• It’s in the land of the Stans
• It has steppes, high mountains and high mountain deserts
• it has a bit of the Fergana valley, one of the fertile and most contentious valleys in the world
• the president is a dictator, but not as bad as Uzbekistan
• y’all make a giant dish that you all share and scoop with your hands
• you have a fermented sheep or goat milk drink
• you’re on the Silk Road and had one of the most populated cities in the world at one point
• some if the Turkic people moved to Turkey and Hungary, which is why those countries exist
• you really weren’t organized as a country before the USSR rolled in, more of loose group of regional leaders (I hate the term warlord)
• y’all are known for your horses

Sadly no, it’s going to be the junior people who are replaced because they lack tribal knowledge. Offshore will decrease as well. It’s already happening.

My wife and I had a good snicker one time when I brought home edamame peas in the shell.

They were shelled, but she wanted them shelled.

Flammable/imflammable is another one that comes to mind.

If he did, he could be the next Zelenskyy.

Good

• Personalized medicine means diseases are being cured at a rapid pace
• The great pacific garbage patch will be cleaned up!
• High speed rail is to start service in central California

Bad

• The war in Ukraine and Sudan are set to continue
• The vast revolution wind project in Rhode Island is likely to remain stalled, near completion
• Because the republicans have a trifecta in the levers of federal government, the US is going to have a hard fight ahead of it to maintain free and fair federal elections. Depending on how that shapes out, other countries governments may feel more bolstered to follow suit.

I cast one of my donut shaped microwave magnets in your direction. Qty: 30

The standard faire would be a mirror or the ladder to the attic or a broom.

If you’re looking for the path less traveled, a microwave magnet is a fantastic way to curse your nemesis’s compass.

As long as you both consent to it and he is willing to also put in the work it takes to raise a child then what’s the problem?

Malcolm Gladwell just recently had a child in his late 50s/early 60s and so did Peter Sagal of Wait Wait fame. People have kids later in life all the time.

My wife and I had our first child when I was 39 because that’s finally when it happened for us and we had the means to support our kid the way we wanted.

I’m in my mid 40s now and would love another. I still have the energy to swing our kid around and throw her up in the air. Now she’s getting into the ages where she can hike with us, it’s a wonderful journey watching her grow and learn.

One thing I would just ask of you, personally, is just make the commitment to read to your child. Read to them every night. Read to them as much as they want. Read to them even when you’re tired. It’s so important for their development.

You’re up north? I’d be thinking of ways to keep the house insulated, warm and with pipes unfrozen.

Pipewrap. They come in a few different options. The cheap foam works ok, but can be a pain around elbows and expansions. The insulation roll is a bit easier to get done well but takes more time.

Pipe heaters - relatively cheap, somewhere around $20-40. Run it along the pipe and plug it in.

Do you have a well or city water? If a well, make sure that cement encasement is lodged in the ground good and then stuff insulation all in it. Pipe warmer may serve you well here too. If city, then you’re in a bit of an easier situation.

If you have a crawl space, seal the door well. Don’t forget to open the vents in the summer and for sure close them in the winter. If you have a basement, make sure your water barrier is doing its job and get a dehumidifier to prevent mold. Try to get one with a drain tube so you don’t have to empty it all the freaking time like I currently do.

Get one of those foam dohickeys for your outdoor faucets and for the love of all that is unfrozen do not leave your hoses attached in the winter.

Get a preventive maintenance plan on your big ticket items like furnaces boilers and aircons. People neglect these and then end up with an eventual $8k unexpected bill. At least the pms will tell you if you’re close to their expiry so you can prepare. They may also help you prevent mold in your aircon before it becomes a problem.

Get pest control, we do monthly. It’ll help keep out the ants, mice, bats and squirrels.

Get yourself a backup battery that can run a fridge for a day. Or invest in a backup generator.

Figure out what your secondary source of heat will be (e.g wood stove, propane, kerosene.) Make sure you have it stocked. If you burn anything, make sure to get a CO sensor and that your fire alarms are working. Houses are so tightly built nowadays that you’ll need to ensure anything burned has proper ventilation.

Change your air filters every 3 months depending on use. Make sure to clean your fridge air filter every 6 months. If you have a kitchen stove exhaust fan, make sure to clean that up every few months as well.

Invest in some salt and a snow shovel if you don’t already have one. You’ll need it. .

Change out your locks. Who knows who the previous owners gave a key. If your doors have the smart key system, then it’s very easy to do nowadays.

Learn where your electric panel is, make sure you don’t have two or even three elsewhere around the house, sometimes inside, sometimes out.

Don’t be a stranger, talk to your neighbors. They’re your best resource in a pinch

Congrats on owning your own castle. It’s a lot of upkeep but it’s a lot of piece of mind too.

Yes, I do, because we are many and we persevere.

Here we are celebrating Labor Day, the day that celebrates workers rights - overtime pay for working over 40 hours, limiting children from having to work in factories, weekends and time off.

It was a hard fight from serfdom to poor factory conditions to now. We stand on the shoulders of giants.

There’s a growing wisdom gap coming in America. The people who are already well versed in company practices and culture are going to use AI to complete the tasks that they would have otherwise given to assistants and junior resources.

The junior resources are going to struggle to find jobs because they are lacking in the KSAs that schools simply cannot provide training for. And that means when us Gen Xers and later Millenials retire there could be a major gap where we have few people with that inherent knowledge to replace us. And where there’s no work and no hope, you get something akin to what is starting to occur in China right now…or revolt.

My hope is that schools will be rethought and there will be a lot more focus on getting an internship early and for the long term. Something more like apprenticeships, which the blue collar workforce maintained, but it’s something we’ll likely need to bring back to white collar jobs.

This isn’t to say that schools should diminish a well rounded education. I think it’s extremely important for students to take electives outside of their focus for a multitude of reasons, one being that it helps students realize the importance of how others contribute to society.

Apprenticeships can help to fill the knowledge gap, but the white collars that are in the jobs now will also need to be retrained and made comfortable to work with a large influx of apprentices to make this approach a success.