SOB_Van_Owen

When Vita-mixes are criminalized, only criminals will have Vita-mixes.

Only know about chicken fish from Tom Waits and John Lurie.

U.S. has the Dr. Bronner's soap label of currencies.

Yeah. I totally get it. It does take effort to preserve any wonder and stave off cynicism. Especially in these days of ever growing inequality and tougher material conditions for folks in general. When I was growing up there sure seemed more cause for optimism. Now, folks who look squarely at reality find it tough to muster, what with stagnated wages, an erosion of personal ties, a generally lousy work/life balance for most.

Still, I try to look to and look after my friends, my community. It's not much, but it's what I can do. I've seen hardship, illness, betrayal, personal devaluation, loss. But I'd rather not become a bitter, old bastard like so many I see in this region.

Tim Burtony soundtrack intensifies.

AT&T are trash. Took us far too long to dump them. Glad we did. Found much better service at a quarter the cost.

And I'm cracking up at the scammers phoning up my 85 year old father telling him his Windows has been compromised on his Linux desktop.

Koo-Koo, Katchoo.

Appalachian here. No doubt curbing demand for coal and doing little to take up the slack in viable livelihood has dropped an economic bomb on an already historically depressed region. All of the programs you hear about teaching coal miners to code and such are superficial window dressing and often non-profit grifts that fold in a short time leaving executives to float away on golden parachutes. Whichever way you turn it, people here are exploited and propagandized. Most often attributing their woes to the wrong sources. Folks that are for sure feeling the effects of a changing climate with frequent severe storms, 1000 year floods, etc.

Sadly, the sociopath/idiotic formula does seem to resonate with the algorithms and/or the public. There is a local creator that I know to be a thoughtful, well-rounded person, yet they had to reduce themselves to a cartoon caricature in order to get traction. But that approach seems to have worked out for them, at least initially through Tik Tok and YouTube. Now I see them taking on increasingly sketchy sponsorships as their 15 minutes fades. And of course audience capture indisputably steers media makers into conspiratorial niches they can't escape without sacrificing views/payout. Authenticity be damned.

Whoa. "Going to Hell in a handbasket" just got literal.

If only. We knew lots of folks that died after refusing Covid vaccination. They'd been told batshit crazy stuff by the media they took to be gospel.