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What I’m Thankful for
Nov. 28th, 2024 06:04 am1. Bernadette
2. Kevin
3. Some of the smartest, nicest, most interesting friends & acquaintances in the world, specifically including those belonging to my dreamwidth and Facebook reading lists and my electronic and postal mailing lists.
4. My body. It’s an evolved animal, the product of millions of years of fighting, breeding, and dying, with all the problems that would suggest, but as far as we know, the human body is the only vehicle mind has. (It's a ride.) I’m thankful for mine in particular because it’s a strong one. It has survived 80+ years of as little exercise and nutritional correctness as I could get away with giving it. It has survived much abuse of assorted substances (and the only one of those I wouldn’t do over again is tobacco) and now survives without them.
6. All other minds, past and present: those who created computers to expand my mind and a Net to join it to others, medicines that allow me to survive the previously fatal weaknesses of my body, and words and pictures that have enriched my thoughts, and all those I have forgotten or taken for granted.
There used to be a #5, expressing modified rapture for my country, but that was before it re-elected a senile fascist.
2. Kevin
3. Some of the smartest, nicest, most interesting friends & acquaintances in the world, specifically including those belonging to my dreamwidth and Facebook reading lists and my electronic and postal mailing lists.
4. My body. It’s an evolved animal, the product of millions of years of fighting, breeding, and dying, with all the problems that would suggest, but as far as we know, the human body is the only vehicle mind has. (It's a ride.) I’m thankful for mine in particular because it’s a strong one. It has survived 80+ years of as little exercise and nutritional correctness as I could get away with giving it. It has survived much abuse of assorted substances (and the only one of those I wouldn’t do over again is tobacco) and now survives without them.
6. All other minds, past and present: those who created computers to expand my mind and a Net to join it to others, medicines that allow me to survive the previously fatal weaknesses of my body, and words and pictures that have enriched my thoughts, and all those I have forgotten or taken for granted.
There used to be a #5, expressing modified rapture for my country, but that was before it re-elected a senile fascist.
Membership
Jan. 17th, 2024 01:43 pmFinally remembered to renew membership so you'll see more userpics from me again
Thanksgiving
Nov. 23rd, 2023 06:40 amWhat I'm grateful for
1. Bernadette
2. Kevin
3. Some of the smartest, nicest, most interesting friends & acquaintances in the world, specifically including those belonging to my dreamwidth and Facebook reading lists, my electronic and postal mailing lists, and the two apas I am still in.
4. My body. It’s an evolved animal, the product of millions of years of fighting, breeding, and dying, with all the problems that would suggest, but as far as we know, the human body is the only vehicle mind has. (It's a ride.) I’m thankful for mine in particular because it’s a strong one. It has survived 80+ years of as little exercise and nutritional correctness as I could get away with giving it. It has survived much abuse of assorted substances (and the only one of those I wouldn’t do over again is tobacco) and now survives without them.
5. My nation. Like my body, not the ideal place to inhabit, but good as actually existing ones go. My predecessors stole a good land from the natives and gave it good laws, including a constitution that still does much to protect us. When my own forebears came here much later, the immigration laws were tougher, and there were opportunities for people like them, who combined ability with pigmentational correctness, and they thereby flourished.
6. All other minds, past and present: those who created computers to expand my mind and a Net to join it to others, medicines that allow me to survive the previously fatal weaknesses of my body, and words and pictures that have enriched my thoughts, and all those I have forgotten or taken for granted.
1. Bernadette
2. Kevin
3. Some of the smartest, nicest, most interesting friends & acquaintances in the world, specifically including those belonging to my dreamwidth and Facebook reading lists, my electronic and postal mailing lists, and the two apas I am still in.
4. My body. It’s an evolved animal, the product of millions of years of fighting, breeding, and dying, with all the problems that would suggest, but as far as we know, the human body is the only vehicle mind has. (It's a ride.) I’m thankful for mine in particular because it’s a strong one. It has survived 80+ years of as little exercise and nutritional correctness as I could get away with giving it. It has survived much abuse of assorted substances (and the only one of those I wouldn’t do over again is tobacco) and now survives without them.
5. My nation. Like my body, not the ideal place to inhabit, but good as actually existing ones go. My predecessors stole a good land from the natives and gave it good laws, including a constitution that still does much to protect us. When my own forebears came here much later, the immigration laws were tougher, and there were opportunities for people like them, who combined ability with pigmentational correctness, and they thereby flourished.
6. All other minds, past and present: those who created computers to expand my mind and a Net to join it to others, medicines that allow me to survive the previously fatal weaknesses of my body, and words and pictures that have enriched my thoughts, and all those I have forgotten or taken for granted.
I am not yet a post
Oct. 7th, 2023 09:10 amMy hearing has been getting worse for 50 years or so, but I’m still not deaf (or Deaf). This article includes some forms of communicative courtesy I find helpful.
Personal holiday
May. 5th, 2023 04:56 amToday is my fanniversary. On the auspicious date of 5/5/77 I decided I was more scared not to publish a zine than to do one, so I printed up and mailed out the first Diagonal Relationship. Most of the good things in my life come from that decision.
Doing a zine led me to amateur press associations (apas), which I loved, as they gave me opportunities to wise-ass about everything. I was in over a dozen at a time, and for years my favorite was LASFAPA. For me as for many the Web did what apas are for even better (to a greater extent than even zines) so apas are now almost historical, and this week we lost Marty Cantor, who ran LASFAPA during its glory years. If there is ever an apa hall of fame, Marty belongs there.
Doing a zine led me to amateur press associations (apas), which I loved, as they gave me opportunities to wise-ass about everything. I was in over a dozen at a time, and for years my favorite was LASFAPA. For me as for many the Web did what apas are for even better (to a greater extent than even zines) so apas are now almost historical, and this week we lost Marty Cantor, who ran LASFAPA during its glory years. If there is ever an apa hall of fame, Marty belongs there.
And then I said
Dec. 20th, 2022 01:55 pmAs irritations cause the oyster to make pearls, Facebook causes me to make comments. I am bringing a few I like to these friendlier environs…
"Goblin mode is a neologism for rejecting societal expectations and living in an unkempt, hedonistic manner without regard to self-image"
For some of us, it's not just a mode. it's a way of life.
Were the Russians lucky or clever when they grabbed Brittney Griner? They pushed a number of MAGAt buttons—
*Black
*lesbian
*celebrity
*caught with ritually unclean substance—
It gave The Former Guy a chance to say that we should have traded for Paul Whelan instead, which it is most likely we could not have done and, as Whelan’s brother noted, The Former Guy did not deign to notice the case when he was president and might conceivably have done something about it.
Second straight day Facebook tells me I have no memories. I find it dubious that I never posted on this date in all the years I’ve been here, but maybe it’s a Dorian Gray thing and my Facebook persona is losing its memories so I don’t.
People as typefaces: Much of humanity is adequately represented by the one we are required to use here,* but me and my friends tend to be Bookface or the dread Comic Sans or even Curlz. If they catch you being Zapf Dingbats, you’ll probably be put away.
Shorter Jeremy Clarkson: Having sexual desire and racial hatred for the same person always makes me want to cry. Will you pay me to do it in public?
You Tube just offered me a video of “Gentle on my Mind.” I want to live in the alternate world where that’s the advertising slogan for a mild psychedelic,
In my adolescence (50s) there were dirty jokes about having a male organ two feet long. As the decencies of public speech fell away, more people realized that such a condition would actually be a deformity and a disability.
I long for the day when the culture as a whole has the same view of similarly hypertrophied wealth and has only pity for those who want to make theirs even bigger.
*Facebook of course. I’m tempted to call it “the neurotypical typeface.”
"Goblin mode is a neologism for rejecting societal expectations and living in an unkempt, hedonistic manner without regard to self-image"
For some of us, it's not just a mode. it's a way of life.
Were the Russians lucky or clever when they grabbed Brittney Griner? They pushed a number of MAGAt buttons—
*Black
*lesbian
*celebrity
*caught with ritually unclean substance—
It gave The Former Guy a chance to say that we should have traded for Paul Whelan instead, which it is most likely we could not have done and, as Whelan’s brother noted, The Former Guy did not deign to notice the case when he was president and might conceivably have done something about it.
Second straight day Facebook tells me I have no memories. I find it dubious that I never posted on this date in all the years I’ve been here, but maybe it’s a Dorian Gray thing and my Facebook persona is losing its memories so I don’t.
People as typefaces: Much of humanity is adequately represented by the one we are required to use here,* but me and my friends tend to be Bookface or the dread Comic Sans or even Curlz. If they catch you being Zapf Dingbats, you’ll probably be put away.
Shorter Jeremy Clarkson: Having sexual desire and racial hatred for the same person always makes me want to cry. Will you pay me to do it in public?
You Tube just offered me a video of “Gentle on my Mind.” I want to live in the alternate world where that’s the advertising slogan for a mild psychedelic,
In my adolescence (50s) there were dirty jokes about having a male organ two feet long. As the decencies of public speech fell away, more people realized that such a condition would actually be a deformity and a disability.
I long for the day when the culture as a whole has the same view of similarly hypertrophied wealth and has only pity for those who want to make theirs even bigger.
*Facebook of course. I’m tempted to call it “the neurotypical typeface.”
From Elsewhere
Oct. 29th, 2022 01:15 pmSince I like DreamWidth better than Facebook, I should bring over some of my best posts from there.
I hope history records 2022 as a year of two great “Hubris meets Nemesis” stories: Zuck/Meta and Lone Skum/Twitter.
I first heard of Twitter when it still had the 140-character limit. I was horrified to realize that there was a huge demographic with shorter attention spans than mine.
I signed up with Twitter so they would stop nagging and do not participate. I see no reason to change that policy.
I may be confusing the A“I” by Liking a lot of financial news, but it’s all about the fall of Meta. As was said at the movie producer’s funeral, “Give the people what they want and they’ll come out for it.”
Many Twits want a social network in which they can wallow in their favorite flavors of hate speech, but that leaves out the truism that they are the product, not the customers. The real customers (the advertisers) are reasonably afraid of being associated with such a thing.
I hope history records 2022 as a year of two great “Hubris meets Nemesis” stories: Zuck/Meta and Lone Skum/Twitter.
I first heard of Twitter when it still had the 140-character limit. I was horrified to realize that there was a huge demographic with shorter attention spans than mine.
I signed up with Twitter so they would stop nagging and do not participate. I see no reason to change that policy.
I may be confusing the A“I” by Liking a lot of financial news, but it’s all about the fall of Meta. As was said at the movie producer’s funeral, “Give the people what they want and they’ll come out for it.”
Many Twits want a social network in which they can wallow in their favorite flavors of hate speech, but that leaves out the truism that they are the product, not the customers. The real customers (the advertisers) are reasonably afraid of being associated with such a thing.
So I’ve been through another asthma siege, this one with extra added pneumonia. After much allopathic Western medicine I am breathing clearly again. There is a new wonder drug, and if I lived in a First World country that knew how to do public health, I would be getting my first shot today. My doctor is good at dealing with this sort of thing, and he says my prognosis is good.
And then I said…
Jun. 23rd, 2022 06:22 amIn a burst of narcissism I offer some of the remarks Facebook tells me I made on this date:
* Critical race theory is getting a traditional censor response: They don’t understand it, they don’t know where it is, and they’re making it sound desirable
* I've just learned that there's a computer system called Dyck language. Like Uranus, it offers *two* offensive pronunciations
* A thought for Alan Turing's 100th birthday:
If the British men's room cops had done their job better, the Axis might have won.
* I would like the people who are offended by fatness, public nursing, or homosexual or heteroracial couples not to believe that "silence is consent."
* Critical race theory is getting a traditional censor response: They don’t understand it, they don’t know where it is, and they’re making it sound desirable
* I've just learned that there's a computer system called Dyck language. Like Uranus, it offers *two* offensive pronunciations
* A thought for Alan Turing's 100th birthday:
If the British men's room cops had done their job better, the Axis might have won.
* I would like the people who are offended by fatness, public nursing, or homosexual or heteroracial couples not to believe that "silence is consent."
(no subject)
Oct. 20th, 2021 05:26 amThe skin graft appears to have been successful; I came home last night. There will, of course be follow-up work.
(no subject)
Sep. 12th, 2021 05:35 amToday marks 29 years without drugs (fun drugs; I still use allopathic Western medicine to stay alive)
(no subject)
Jul. 5th, 2021 05:09 amAt the end of last month my asthma/allergies became bad enough for my doctor to have me sent to the hospital to have meds pumped into me. They are working and I’m back home.
(no subject)
Jun. 22nd, 2021 05:19 amI’m back. The computer broke again on June 12, but now it’s apparently fixed.
Peeking at the news,
Netanyahu is out (good)
Mudcat Grant, Judge Jack Weinstein, and Edward de Bono are dead (bad)
Cole Beasley is a schmuck; Carl Nassib is a hero.
What else is new?
Peeking at the news,
Netanyahu is out (good)
Mudcat Grant, Judge Jack Weinstein, and Edward de Bono are dead (bad)
Cole Beasley is a schmuck; Carl Nassib is a hero.
What else is new?
