AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH That is all.
Hi Hubski - Realized that I went completely silent on here when the pandemic was at its spiciest. Rest assured, COVID-19 didn't get me! Almost everyone dealt with mental health difficulties during lockdown, myself included. I missed everyone! I'm going to be lurking a bit, but I hope I have a chance to catch up with you guys. Hope everyone's been taking care!
We survived the sister-in-law. This is the woman who insisted my wife had to come out and be her midwife, but my wife wasn't licensed to practice in Maryland, so there was a massive blowup about how my wife didn't love her sister and my about how my wife didn't want to be barred from practicing medicine forever if something went wrong, and there was massive family drama, and I ended up trapped in a basement three feet below my screaming sister-in-law giving birth, and then the "midwife" decided she had to be somewhere so up and fucking left, leaving my wife (who had no license to practice in Maryland) in charge of the baby and then we found out six months later, when the "midwife" was arrested and went to jail for practicing without a license that she'd never had a fucking license anyway so had something gone wrong, my wife would have been banned from practicing her trade forever. That baby's eleven now. I put together a spreadsheet for the whole family to try and figure out where we could all vacation together to maximize our vacation bux. It pointed to the Upper Peninsula. The sister-in-law did the vacation without us and invited the grandparents. Then the last time they were in town they all hit the aquarium without us, despite it being my daughter's favorite place in the whole world and despite us having the only membership in the family. Three weeks ago my father-in-law let it slip that he and his wife were going out to see them in a week, despite them coming out two weeks later. We were given no invitation, nor explanation, since we now knew could we water the plants. They live less than a mile away. We see them multiple times a week. There was a three day window for the sister-in-law's visit. It was dictated to us that we got half of Wednesday because they were seeing the ferris wheel and the space needle. When it was pointed out that my daughter has wanted to check out the ferris wheel and space needle for most of her life, it was explained that there was no room in the car, maybe we could all ride a ferry or something on Wednesday. When I suggested we could make our own way there was radio silence. Eventually my mother-in-law called up and apologetically offered us tickets to the ferris wheel and space needle. That was a day. The less said about it the better. What was made clear was that my sister-in-law and her kids, as well as grandma and grandpa, were going to ride a ferry on Tuesday and we weren't coming. Not only not invited, discouraged from even asking because they wanted "alone time with grandma and grandpa (who had spent a week out there not ten days previous). When my eight year old daughter questioned "but weren't we going to ride a ferry this week?" my wife had to fucking gaslight her own daughter for the sake of politeness. "No, honey, I meant we'd ride a ferry sometime soon, not this week." My wife spent the evening crying. Kid wasn't there because my sister-in-law had invited my daughter to sleep over so that the kids could hang out. Apparently they gave her a towel to sleep under. That we were a five minute drive away didn't factor. And I guess she got up once to pee because when my daughter asked if she could do it again my sister-in-law called my wife and said that she didn't think she wanted my daughter sleeping over ever again because she "kept everyone up all night." This is a family that leaned into "attachment parenting" which apparently to them meant "never say no to your kids." It also means "snap at your kids all the time and let them know how disappointed you are in their choices at every available opportunity." Apparently my eight year old daughter asked her cousin "do you always fight like this every morning?" and was told "yeah this is a normal breakfast." Suggestions were polled as to "what to do on Wednesday" and my daughter was resoundingly ignored. We were not consulted. An idea was arrived at and my daughter, always game, got enthusiastic about it. Then an hour before it was supposed to happen my sister-in-law decided we weren't doing it because one of her kids didn't want to. My daughter locked herself in the closet and started crying. I've put up with their bullshit for fuckin' 20 years at this point. But it's gotten to the point where my kid is absolutely reading the room on this and recognizing that grandma and grampa let this family do whatever they want, to each other and to others, and grin and bear it for the sake of minimizing discord. And she can't quite verbalize the concept of "injustice?" But the fact that adults will yell at her and hold her responsible while their own kids are just scorned is a complex set of emotions she's not sure how to process. My sister-in-law grilled my wife about her business on Monday to try and figure out an angle as to how to be scornful of a woman with seven employees who does over a million dollars in revenue while she's been kicked off her neighborhood's co-op buy list. Eventually she settled on the fact that we will only do the medicine we can bill for which demonstrated that we were part of the problem because one of her bitchy friends was fired by her doctor for demanding that a checklist of seven things be handled in a 20-minute office visit. In that discussion was the price of Rhogam and the fact that the State doesn't reimburse us as much as our distributors charge us, but we're required by law to administer it. My sister-in-law said I didn't know what I was talking about because she had to pay way more than that to get it shipped overnight. My wife got an edge to her voice and said "usually midwives in states that don't let them deliver Rhogam have a relationship with a doctor and they just send you in to see them." My sister in law prevaricated and asked her husband how much they ended up spending on Rhogam. "I dunno, it was eleven years ago." Which means the sister-in-law knew the midwife was unlicensed at the time. We've sort of been surviving on the assumption that the midwife lied to my sister-in-law, therefore perhaps my sister-in-law didn't mean to jeopardize her own sister's career and quarter million dollars of education. Perhaps she just didn't check references. But no, the two of them flagrantly entered into a discussion that made clear they knew all along. The lie was from my sister-in-law to my wife. And still. We suffered through two more days for the sake of politeness. __________________________________________________________________________ My wife has been in tears about 40% of the time since Sunday night. My daughter has been in tears a not-insubstantial amount of time, considering what a happy little kid she is. I told my wife on Tuesday that we were done with this shit; however she chose to deal with her sister was one thing. However her parents chose to deal with her sister was another. But the minute their bullshit started washing over my daughter I was fucking done. That there was going to be a reckoning. And that from this point forth, I was done being polite and going along with their need to forgive the unforgivable. I was not going to let my daughter grow up thinking that you accept injustice for the sake of politeness, and that no one gets to treat you like a second-class citizen. I was not going to accept that one sister's family was always going to be forgiven at the cost of the other if one of those families included my kid and that while I know politeness is the only thing that keeps certain bullshit together, politeness was fucking done. I was willing to land the plane in one piece and get them the fuck out the door with my daughter getting happy hugs from her cousins this time, but that next time, there would be ground rules, that grandma and grampa would would back us the fuck up instead of intimating that we needed to be steamrolled for the good of harmony, and that if they wanted any fucking participation from us ever again, They Need To Come Correct On This Bullshit. So that's something to look forward to.X - This is another times. Father chained me tight. This time I hit the stick out of his hands and made noise. He went away and his face was white. He ran out of my bed place and locked the door. I am not so glad. All day it is cold in here. The chain comes slow out of the wall. And I have a bad anger with mother and father. I will show them. I will do what I did that once. I will screech and laugh loud. I will run on the walls. Last I will hang head down by all my legs and laugh and drip green all over until they are sorry they didn’t be nice to me. If they try to beat me again I’ll hurt them. I will.
Knowing your wife’s kindness, sense of justice and levelheadedness, it’s hard to imagine her sister being so diametrically opposed on those fronts. I’ve been in a similar position of your daughter for most of my youth. My parents put up with so.much.manipulative.BS from my mom's side of the family. When I was young they were able to hide it from us, but her whole “crying in the car plus stress induced migraine” wasn’t possible to hide anymore when I was a teenager. It did not take me long to reach the conclusion that some family relations are simply untenable; it took my mom a long time to get to that point and cut ties. It’s now been a decade and she’s still glad she did it. There’s never been even the slightest attempt at self reflection or a hint of an apology from the other side, which says enough I think.
Well that sounds terrible and I'm sorry it's been that way. I heartily applaud your decision to take no more shit anymore. This quote: was this from something we did in sci-fi club? I can swear I've read it, and can recall a general outline of the story.X - This is another times. Father chained me tight. This time I hit the stick out of his hands and made noise. He went away and his face was white. He ran out of my bed place and locked the door. I am not so glad. All day it is cold in here. The chain comes slow out of the wall. And I have a bad anger with mother and father. I will show them. I will do what I did that once. I will screech and laugh loud. I will run on the walls. Last I will hang head down by all my legs and laugh and drip green all over until they are sorry they didn’t be nice to me. If they try to beat me again I’ll hurt them. I will.
Apropos of nothing, if you check the chat it appears that at least three of us are reading Andrzej Sapkowsky's The Last Wish right now. Pure coincidence. We could use a 45, just sayin'.
That could be misinterpreted as some kind of pro-Trump reinstatement kinda thing, but I'm pretty sure you're talking about #scificlub.We could use a 45, just sayin'.
While I can only bow to c_hawkthorne's conciseness and candour, it's been a challenging and emotionally draining week. Lots of work drama, too. I can't wait to be out of that stupid project.
We are headed up to the cottage tomorrow. I am dropping this big boy at the dog sitter's today and it makes me sad. We could take him in theory, but in practice, he is still a puppy and will be giving everyone a bit of trouble and he won't understand why he can't come in the big cottage. As always, I could use the time off-the-grid, and I am looking forward to it. I need to install the stove and chimney in the sauna, and chances are very good that we'll be able to fire it up this year.
Monday we had dinner with SO's cousin. One of which had prolonged exposure to a symptomatic COVID case... turns out J&J was a horrible choice to get vaccinated with. Of the 5 of us at dinner, I'm the only one who developed symptoms (and tested positive). Everyone else had Moderna. We're assuming it was the Delta variant given I developed symptoms under 24 hours. First couple days were awful and I should have taken more days off work... but I'm on the mend (each day has been measurably better). Even vaccinated, this was no joke. Kudos to every one pushing vaccines out there. I can't imagine how I would've turned out without the vaccine in my veins. Also shout out to c_hawk, will respond when I have my head out of the medicated clouds. The live stream demo was lovely to listen to. The visual reminded me of HAM radio waterfall displays. Hope you're crushing it. \m/
Did person with known prolonged exposure ultimately test positive? If not, you'd be a contact of a contact through that chain of transmission and that wouldn't count as confirmed contact and we'd look elsewhere for exposures. I also wouldn't be so quick to jump on the blaming of JnJ versus Moderna when you could have had exposure elsewhere. But glad to hear you're improving and glad you enjoyed the birds!
Ultimately no. They had gone directly from contact point to dinner, though. The other theory is someone at my (small) apt complex had it and unknowingly spread through the communal laundry unit. Fun fact, without a sense of smell, I smash at wasabi eating feats. No pain, all gain.
I entertained that route about 20 years ago for almost 2 years, and of those that I was aware of that were doing the same, I don't think it worked out for any of them. I agree with you. That said, there is something going on atm regarding NFTs, that is of real interest IMHO. The theory is that artists are going to be able to link their work to non-fungible tokens and in doing so, will be able to capture more value over time and build a better relationship with their audience. It's very early times, so there is plenty to doubt and be cynical about. However, I do believe the theory will be proven correct in time. If you are creating, I'd seriously look into experimenting with them. Currently, it seems that the number of sincere artists doing so is small, but growing. There's fertile ground there and the current economy for art is ineffcient AF. I used to pile as much relish, mustard and onions on my 7/11 hotdog for the calories. I'd even do ketchup and I don't like ketchup. But the eggrolls tasted better, and sometimes I'd give in.
To contradict Marshall McLuhan, "NFTs for NFTs sake" is neither long-term nor short-term profitable. People "dipping their toes" in NFTs are discovering that selling your undergraduate trash on Etsy makes you pennies if you're lucky, doesn't matter if it's a jpeg on the blockchain or tempera on canvas. I don't think that's accurate. It's more accurate to say that the current economy for art is not efficient for artists. There are definite advantages to blockchain utilization but they do not overcome the basic challenge of art: it's valuable if you can convince someone else it's valuable. This is why Damien Hirst can make 10,000 dot paintings for two thousand dollars each but if I tried the same, I'd end up with wallpaper. THAT is the great struggle at the moment: convincing the rich that NFTs have value. Gotta say it's going gangbusters so far. Once that's happened, the mass adoption will be driven by browsers. And that, I think, is going to cause another profound shift: a move away from motion. Right now a lot of NFTs are dumb little clips. Because hey, motion is cool. But the minute you put it somewhere it catches your eye, it looks twitchy and you hate it. Discovered this when a friend bought an FP Journe Vagabondage 3 (and I think he literally bought this Vagabondage 3): Looks cool, right? I mean, we all love motion. We all love seeing that mechanical wonderousness. But once it's on your wrist and in your peripheral vision, it's twitchy. It's disconcerting. It's this annoying bit of jerky motion that constantly distracts you. We're going to have to undergo a whole new evaluation of art, value and appreciation with NFTs. There's something like $20b worth of NFTs out there already, which leads me to believe they'll never go away. Everyone buying Hirst is very carefully calibrating their choice as to whether to burn the NFT or the paper because whichever one gets burned more is going to be worth more. Or is it?That said, there is something going on atm regarding NFTs, that is of real interest IMHO. The theory is that artists are going to be able to link their work to non-fungible tokens and in doing so, will be able to capture more value over time and build a better relationship with their audience.
There's fertile ground there and the current economy for art is ineffcient AF.
Agreed. One cool thing that distinguishes it from an art fair sale is the artist getting a cut of future sales of the same piece. I can be a bit over-optimistic and hyperbolic at times, but I feel that NFTs might unlock more value than "decentralized finance" does by removing middlemen. We do shit in order to surround ourselves with and to consume creative efforts. The market for it has just been abyssmal for all recorded history.Right now it appears to be one massive meme auction.
The core value of NFTs is their inherent community. They inextricably tie the owner of a piece to the creator of that piece, and to the owners of all other pieces and they do so at any scale. I own a Magritte. Well, I own an official, numbered Galerie Iolas print of a Magritte. This Magritte. I bought that Magritte for $200 off eBay in like 2002. No one could ever tell me what it was even called. Turns out that's because it's at the TMoCA and has been down the nowhere hole since 1979. I found a picture of it once in 2008, which is how I knew it was in Tehran. Apparently it was actually exhibited once in 2016. Now - what is my Magritte worth? Who can set that value? Who would choose to pay it? These are the efficiencies around the art market you mentioned. I would argue however that the auction houses and the appraisers are the ones who benefit from that efficiency. After all, the houses and appraisers basically conjured a Da Vinci out of the aether with Salvator Mundi. But they'll never able to conjure that "value" out of an NFT. I kind of think that physical art will remain more valuable than NFTs for the simple sake of puffery. The inability to audit is a feature not a bug. The Warhol Foundation Authentication Board shuttered in 2011.
Driving to work today, I see a partially annihilated metal ladder by the side of the freeway and think "somebody messed up bad. Glad I wasn't the one to hit that". A few minutes later, a car to the left and in front of me hits some piece of debris and sends it flying under my car and immediate grinding and scraping ensues. I pull over and manage to dislodge the giant hunk of metal just from reversing. The plastic undercarriage shield is torn up, but I think I got away with no real damage. That was a morning wake-me-up.
Yeah man, the universe sucks. Second to last day here too. I did keep an eye out for any rapidly dropping gauges on the short remainder of the trip to work (I was almost there). I didn't see any fluids or anything, but we'll see if that's changed when I go back to the car today. Guess I need to get it checked out regardless.
Got free tickets to a small festival next week, as a helper to build a little effigy there. I’ve actually never been to a festival before, only burns so I’m trying not to set my expectations too high. I have no interest in dancing in front of a sound system so I’m glad we have a project to keep busy. And I feel like I know many people going. Curious to see how it will go and if I’ll enjoy it. Things are really ramping up at work too, with many events planned for end of summer and fall. It’s going to get hectic soon, but it’s also very exciting! Less admin, more party planning! My challenge will be to stay on top of things with so many things going on at the same time and not to drop the ball on something important.
Thank god convolution reverb was invented before the covid era, otherwise I would be like ten times more upset about things like this.