imrithril

Note: I am still unhappy with my posting methodology. In order to make things work the way that I think that they should work rather than how they are currently configured I will be trying different things make this happen (plan on some cursing)

OK: I do read a certain group of folks out there who blog and consider their work worthwhile and not completely nutso. But I am uncertain concerning just how many nickels I should drop into their cups for their writing.

You see, scribbling on the walls of the internet has become a career field. It is joined by the new and (at least to me) slightly nauseating cousin the Podcast. I tend to steer away from podcasts because I kind of tire of actually using my ears to sort out fact from fiction. It takes the written word for me to take something seriously, podcasts are roughly akin to cocktail party conversations, the emphasis seems to be on the person delivering the information rather than the information itself.

I have been blogging for almost twenty years now. At one time, I thought that I might actually make some nickels doing it, but upon mature reflection I decided that my thoughts or my literary output weren't all that particularly impressive and I wasn't made out for a career of starving artist type garret in the Rive Gauche. In light of this reality, I landed here on Dreamwidth writing a diary and having a few buddies to talk to about writing.

But there are some folks out there who write sufficiently well that I feel obliged due to my apparently embedded catholic guilt to throw some nickels their way. I am mentally compiling a list and will leave a little something in their stockings around Christmas. I am leaving JMG off this list because I feel that my ongoing purchases of his books (27 to date) give me a lifetime subscription to his online scribblings, of course, his opinion might differ.

I will consider this problem while sitting down and gazing out at the dull gray skies of Portlandia.

ecosophia

As I noted a little while back, I will be in New York City this coming weekend, and plan to meet readers and friend who happen to be nearby on the evening of Saturday, December 20. We've got a place lined up -- Walker's Bar in Tribeca, at 16 N Moore Street (website) -- and a time -- I'll be arriving there right around 6 pm on Saturday. I look forward to seeing people there!

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Will Ackerman, "The Wall and the Wind"

neonvincent

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Rhaco_dactylus Twitch stream

degringolade

I am definitely not feeling especially "Christmas-ey" this year. In honesty, the Christmas spirit has been vanishing for years now, but it is at the point where I start to wonder if the absence really bothers me.

The family is trying to tine down the greed component of the holiday this year. We finally achieved an agreement where the adults each only get a present through the "secret Santa" system and the newest (21 months) gets her presents from everyone.

I suppose that my feeling towards this particular holiday have been deteriorating for decades now. Even the heretic that I was in my youth, I did enjoy the rituals of midnight mass and dinners and family all in one place. But over time, the society/culture here in 'Murca transitioned from a religious holiday to a commercial one and I really can't say that I appreciate the change very much.

So right now I am struggling with deciding a gift for the exchange and trying to figure out what to buy a toddler who has everything (and more) that a toddler would want.

neonvincent

Watch on YouTube

Current Mood: hungry
Current Location: House in the woods at the edge of town
Current Music: Tinderly Twitch stream

degringolade

I suppose that if I were a nervous Nellie, right now I would be beside myself, but oddly enough, I can't really say that I am all that worried about things.

I am currently in the area of a flood watch. Since it has been bucketing down rain lately, the Willamette is pretty high and the creek that feeds into it (1/4 of a mile from my place) is as high as I have ever seen it, this would seem pretty normal to me. The folks here are treating it like the ass-covering by government officials that it is. There isn't a house that is threatened, the worse that could happen is that in a couple of places, folks might have to detour around some water on the road while on their way to the grocery store.

Look, the government should do exactly what they are doing...I really don't want to keep them from warning people that things are "different" for the moment. But like all things, such warnings should be tempered by the populace keeping their "twitterpating" over-reactions to a minimum. That seems impossible to a fair percentage of the population. So here in Stumptown (yet another Portland Nickname) there are folks demanding that the government "do something".

Nope, I have no fix. People will be people. Bad shit happens and sometimes folks get in the way of bad shit. Luckily for me, the whiners this time are a very small minority and I don't have to listen very much. But I just wanted to point out that this kind of thing happens at all levels and that you really have to look outside to see if the "crisis" that folks are whining about is real or just someone somewhere crying wolf.

[purple with bee.jpg]

ecosophia

We are now into the fifth year of these open posts. When I first posted a tentative hypothesis on the course of the Covid phenomenon, I had no idea that discussion on the subject would still be necessary all these years later, much less that it would turn into so lively, complex, and troubling a conversation. Still, here we are. Crude death rates and other measures of collapsing public health remain anomalously high in many countries, but nobody in authority wants to talk about the inadequately tested experimental Covid injections that are the most likely cause; ~~public health authorities~~ government shills for the pharmaceutical industry are still trying to push through laws that will allow them to force vaccinations on anyone they want; public trust in science is collapsing; new revelations are leaking out about just how bad the Covid vaccines are for human health; and the story continues to unfold.

So it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before:

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry and its government enablers are causing injury and death on a massive scale. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its wholly owned politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here.

3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue.

4. If you plan on making off topic comments, please go away. This is an open post for discussion of the Covid epidemic, the vaccines, drugs, policies, and other measures that supposedly treat it, and other topics directly relevant to those things. It is not a place for general discussion of unrelated topics. Nor is it a place to ask for medical advice; giving such advice, unless you're a licensed health care provider, legally counts as practicing medicine without a license and is a crime in the US. Don't even go there.

5. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules.

6. Please don't just post bare links without explanation. A sentence or two telling readers what's on the other side of the link is a reasonable courtesy, and if you don't include it, your attempted post will be deleted.

7. Please don't post LLM ("AI") generated text. This is a place for human beings to talk to other human beings, not for the regurgitation of machine-generated text. Also, please don't discuss large language models (the technology popularly and inaccurately called "artificial intelligence" these days) except as they bear directly on the Covid phenomenon. Here again, my finger is hovering over the delete button.

Please also note that nothing posted here should be construed as medical advice, which neither I nor the commentariat (excepting those who are licensed medical providers) are qualified to give. Please take your medical questions to the licensed professional provider of your choice.

With that said, the floor is open for discussion.

Current Mood: groggy
Current Music: Mason Williams, "Classical Gas"

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Reading

Diary: Xmas Guilt

JMG in NYC, updated

Working my way down the Macy's Parade bands 5

Diary: Not feeling the season

Working my way down the Macy's Parade bands 4

Diary: Not Really Fretting All That Much

Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 226

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February 2021

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