So Many Lies

December 9, 2015

Every now and then I go through a few days or weeks that I read Snopes regularly. After some time of it, I just have enough. There’s just so much bullshit floating out there that people are for some reason believing and spreading around more, all of which could be avoided if they gave it five seconds of thought. The idea that Snopes even has to debunk some of this stuff is just exhausting to think about.

A fair share of new posts to Snopes are debunking bullshit floating around about Muslims. The assertion is like “help, a Muslim forced some event to stop serving pork products!” and they’re like “no, some satire site made that up”. Or “help, Christian imagery was removed or banned because Muslims complained!” and they’re like “no, some right wingers made that up”. Or, as one recent one, “help, look at this image of a pro-ISIL rally in the US!” and they’re like “no, that’s actually an anti-ISIL rally”.

This shit spreads around, for one, because bigoted assholes. But also because people seem to really want to be offended or outraged or indulge some sort of persecution complex. I guess screw facts if it gets in the way of running around like a panicky idiot. And not in a delightful Wade Duck sort of way.

Trans, Homeless, Preteen

December 8, 2015

According to a trans activist friend of mine, apparently, in New York City, the average age at which homeless trans youth become homeless is 13.5 years.

Average!

I mean, I’ve written before about how parental love isn’t exactly as unconditional as conventional belief would have you think. But even knowing that, it’s so pathetic that parents would kick out kids who are in middle school or younger for any reason really, but still so much more mindblowing that it’s about something so ridiculous as the kids not acting the part of the gender their genitals tell them to be. How fucking petty and heartless can you goddamn get?!

I’ll bet these parents think they love these kids, too. I’ll bet lots of people think that. I guess the mere idea that they might not despite some clear evidence to the contrary here is just too much. 🙄

Too Often

December 7, 2015

At the start of tonight’s Washington Redskins vs Dallas Cowboys game:
“Alright, the great rivalry! Let’s rock! Go Redskins!”

Halftime:
“Okay so far. What a weird game!”

4th Quarter:
*bites nails*

Midway through 4th Quarter:
“YES!”

Tail end of 4th Quarter:
“NO!”

End of game:

:irked:

Coloring Age

December 6, 2015

So there’s a hot new trend these days of coloring books “for adults”. These things are everywhere!

Except coloring books for adults have already existed. They’re just called “coloring books”.

That’s adult society’s insecurities for you. There’s nothing explicitly “for children” about the coloring books that have already existed. Unless what you’re coloring being animated characters of some sort has some hard and fast upper age limit. Which it doesn’t. It’s just adults balking at the idea of doing anything associated with children. So label some coloring books as being “for adults” and they’ll clamor for them and you’ll make a mint!

Not only that. It’s not like adults are supposed to be having fun with these “adult” coloring books. No, they’re therapeutic somehow. Stress relief! You know, the only thing adults’ leisure time is supposed to be about. Fun and imagination is just for children, after all. 🙄

I mean, there’s nothing wrong with these more various types of coloring books being out there, not at all. But by branding it as “adult coloring books”, therefore something typically associated with children being presented with the children somehow removed from the equation, it’s adults invading children’s space for their own benefit and shoving the real children out. Makes me start to understand what the hell people mean when they talk about “cultural appropriation”. *shrug*

Immunity Intact

December 5, 2015

I hate it when anti-vaxxers and intactivists are talked about together as if they’re basically the same thing. Unfortunately, there is plenty of overlap, from those who see both issues as part of some “natural parenting” movement (more on that another day).

Anti-vaxxers are against vaccinations. Intactivists are against infant circumcision.

Those against both see it as some issue of infant body integrity, a thing I can get behind. But there’s one gigantic difference.

Vaccinations are actually extremely necessary, to save the baby and anyone around said baby from preventable diseases. This much is fact. When anti-vaxxers deny these life-saving vaccinations to their children, they are not protecting their children’s rights to their body. They are condemning their children to serious illness, a very severe violation of their rights and an abandonment of parental responsibility. And why? Because vaccines contain ingredients they can’t pronounce and that’s scary to them?

Circumcision, on the other hand, is not at all medically necessary. There is no prevention of life-threatening illness involved in it, unless you count the ridiculous grasping of straws like “uh, we think circumcision might possibly maybe prevent HIV (even though condoms would still be necessary so it doesn’t matter)”. And even so, most of the time it’s done for cosmetic or religious reasons, and people are really goddamn attached to these cosmetic or religious reasons, so this unnecessary barbaric practice continues. This is a painful violation of a child’s body that serves no real purpose and must be stopped.

Vaccinations save lives. Circumcisions are just “durr, foreskins are gross”.

Really no comparison.

One Time a Thing Occurred to Me

December 4, 2015

So you’ve probably heard that Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots died late last night.

So ends an iconic voice of 1990s music.

I’ve seen them in concert a couple of times. Wouldn’t call myself a big fan, but I definitely like a few of their songs. Particularly “Vasoline”. In any case, STP has clearly been an important part of the 1990s soundtrack of our lives, I suppose.

Think about it. Making music that affected people in so many ways, just as all other musicians. But also and more extraordinarily being sort of an essential piece of the scene of their time. It’s art. It’s part of culture. It generates emotions and such in people. That’s something special.

Scott Weiland was only 48, but, aside from at least making it way past 27 unlike so many others like him, he still added something to this world. Just like all other musicians. Just like all other artists. I suppose we all can only hope to do something like that, to any extent.

Connections

December 3, 2015

When flying, I’ve only ever had a layover twice, in 1997 and 1998, and both were in Denver, going on to Salt Lake City and Albuquerque respectively. Family vacations. Of flights I’ve booked myself, they’ve always been nonstop. I insist on it.

That 1998 trip, we missed the first flight and had to catch a later one, which in turn made us miss the second leg, which we had to get the next morning. Annoying.

And not worth it! Unless the flight is really goddamn long or it’s absolutely not an option for whatever reason, nonstop is the way to go.

But in those situations where a connecting flight is necessary, the connection should at least make sense. The connection point should at least not be completely out of the way. When I went to London in 2009, thankfully there were plenty of direct flights from Dulles to Heathrow, but the search pulled up some that would get to London by way of Munich. Munich! As in clear past London, only to turn around and come back. What the hell? There are flights to Seattle-Tacoma from here that would connect at Dallas-Fort Worth, swinging way to the south and very much not in the direction of Seattle from Washington DC. There are flights to Las Vegas that connect in New York-JFK or Boston-Logan or Long Beach.

These don’t make any damn sense! If any one leg of a trip with at least one stop is longer than the nonstop flight, something is terribly wrong.

Or it’s the airline industry being the airline industry. Something like that.

Triggering

December 2, 2015

Now for a traumatic, censoring edition of…

SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!

I want everyone to just stop talking about trigger warnings. Particularly the idea that they’re ruining colleges or something. For one, I think basically nobody talking about them, whether for or against, even knows what the hell they are for.

If you’re going to be discussing in detail something like rape or other sexual assault, child abuse, medical abuse, or other such topics that you can reasonably figure would be disturbing, yeah, it makes sense to give a little heads up ahead of time. Doesn’t it? Of course it does.

Oh, hey, guess what. That’s exactly what a trigger warning is!

It’s called that because these topics in depth could “trigger” one’s post traumatic stress disorder. Can’t have much of an educational environment if someone is shaking and reliving a horrific attack.

I especially don’t get how a trigger warning constitutes censorship as some are claiming. Nobody is being censored. It’s providing some content info up front so that someone who can’t cope with the material can opt out. It’s allowing people to make an informed choice. What in the mother of hell is so offensive about this?

Now, to be clear, plenty of those demanding such warnings and “safe spaces” are being unreasonable as well. I’ve seen “trigger warnings” for some incredibly stupid things. Some of my favorites on that front include “swearing” and “mention of Christianity”. I also don’t think they should be required of college professors or others, though they should at least be courteous of their own volition about topics that actually could fuck someone up psychologically rather than taking a decidedly cold “just suck it up” approach.

But then again, none of this matters. Who cares about nuance and facts and compassion when there are fruitless political battles to be fought, when there are millennials to belittle, when there are the unthinking masses to drum up into a frenzy? Let’s not forget what’s really behind all this. :irked:

Nineties Kids Remember

December 1, 2015

(Have I really not posted in three months? Ugh. Well, let’s see how far this December thing goes this year…)

You know those posts that float around social media saying “only 90s kids remember this” or someone else whose adolescence occurred entirely or in part prior to the turn of the century?

Cassette tapes. Getting film developed. Car windows that roll up and down by use of a hand crank.

Yeah, I, a 90s kid, am glad to be rid of all that shit, too. Thanks for reminding me.

Oh, but the next generation won’t appreciate not having annoying things like this anymore because we have digital media files and power windows? Well, good, it gives them more room to find what’s lacking in the current technology so they can in turn improve on that! Yay, progress!

And then there are the posts suggesting today’s kids will never know such bygone things like, say, a Pez dispenser or ending friendships by playing a well-timed Draw 4 card in Uno.

Except they can because Pez and Uno are totally still around, so I don’t know what the fuck these people are talking about. *shrug*

Equines, Vines, and Mines

August 31, 2015

Hey, look what day it is. Come around for the fifteenth time and once again it is…


DAY

100

Alright, let’s see, what went on that’s remotely interesting and I feel like sharing…

Okay, none of it is all that interesting, but here it is anyway.

Day 4, late birthday cake gathering for me at work, later Trapped Forever by Metro because I didn’t have the exit fare

Day 6, aaaand trying to drive down a very narrow DC street resulted in me destroying someone’s side mirror, clearly going into DC is a bad idea in general.

Day 7, Rush concert! Three hours of music… but they didn’t play Freewill. Sigh. Afterward, Virginia said “oh, going into DC has been nightmarish? challenge accepted!” So in the middle of the night I was stuck in construction traffic on the beltway for THREE HOURS!

Day 8, a bunch of weird backyard games, but stayed in Maryland, so no driving issues this time!

Day 9, gahhh, jury duty! County is making me miss work… for like two hours. They let us out at like 11am and I was still able to go to work. Cool.

Day 13, mmmm, free donut!

Day 14, AMERICAN PHAROAH [sic] WINS THE TRIPLE CROWN!!!!!

Day 21, took little brother to Sugarloaf to climb rocks to his heart’s content.

Day 22, yay, rained out barbecue!

Day 25, parents clearing out stuff from old storage trailer, better not throw away stuff I want to keep!

Day 26, work picnic! Oh, and my headlight’s out.

Day 27, trying to get a blood test and get my headlight bulb replaced on the same day was a bad idea.

Day 29, Nationals game!

Day 35, Inside Out!

Day 39, family left town on a train and left the Wii with me, woohoo!

Day 42, ‘splosions and chili!

Day 43, Team USA wins World Cup!

Day 45, wow, there’s this overgrown vine slowly conquering my backyard… Better start yanking it out… Hey, we have an air conditioner! I remember that thing.

Day 47, Donkey Kong Country! Fuck yeah!

Day 50, cleaning up a lot of crap, finding a lot of old crap I kept for some reason.

Day 54, crap, I think my laptop is having issues.

Day 55, loud tapas are loud!

Day 56, Minions!

Day 57, family left again… but took the Wii with them this time. D’oh!

Day 61, power outage at work! LOL

Day 64, so hard to pick out a new laptop.

Day 68, LOL another power outage at work

Day 69, hey, my car hit 69,000 miles today! What timing!

Day 70, Crash Bandicoot!

Day 75, oh, wait, my laptop does still work, Chrome was just eating its RAM for breakfast.

Day 77, hey, it’s 8/8 and I opened an 8 in Minesweeper! Think I’ll bingewatch Sense8.

Day 80, making travel plans.

Day 84, zoo!

Day 86, eep, I’m in trouble… I can fix this.

Day 87, yay, I fixed this!

Day 91, all the numbers!

Day 94, time for car maintenance… going to take a while, I’ll need to take a *shudder* loaner car! I hate the loaner car! I want MY car!

Day 95, a bunch of very expensive car work later, finally rid of loaner car and got my own car back!

Day 97, shit, my other headlight is out now.

Day 98, stuff that should have happened a long time ago.

Day 99, mmmm, yummy Greek salad.

And finally…

Day 100. Crazy work day and a mysterious intermittent rumbling sound at home. And chicken wings.

Alright.

As these 100 Days of Summer draw to a close, I see that so far 2015 has had a lot going on, which will be gone over on New Year’s Eve. But it’s got four more months to work with. And I’ve got to post on here again because this thing has been kind of neglected.

Goodbye to another 100 Days of Summer. It all starts up again on Day 1 of Round 16 on May 24, 2016, in whatever form the world will be in then. Who knows!

This has been Day 100 of the 100 Days of Summer, Round 15.