The Blog I'm Not Writing

That title is only a slight lie.  In the past week I’ve tied moiself’s  record of many years ago ( pre-pandemic, back when I would try to see at least one movie per week in a theater   [1] ) by seeing four films in four days, I thought the movies were worth a brief mention if not a full-on review.

 

 

Saturday – Tuesday, in the order seen (MH saw the first two with me):

* Wildwood

* You Can See Everything

* Wild Horse Nine

* Godzilla Minus Zero

Wildwood was…meh.  I enjoyed the artistry behind the scenery (the film is stop-motion animated), and the Portland area references.  However, the movie’s attempts at “messages” were rather pedantic ( yep, ethnic cleansing is wrong; does anyone other than Portland-and-environs -ers know or care about the invasive English ivy in our forested parks and hillsides?).  Nothing about the movie surprised me, save for the lameness of the plot ( read: recycling every fantasy meme possible).

You Can See Everything.  Two thumbs…or, yikes…up.  See it, but you definitely won’t see *everything.*    [2]   See it with someone with whom you can go out afterward and debate everything you thought you saw or didn’t see, heard or didn’t hear….

Wild Horse Nine .  Yep, see this as well, even if you (think you) are not a fan of the f-word in all its grammatical forms ( noun; adjective; verb, adverb; interjection; conjunction…. ), nor of 1970s CIA skullduggery.   [3]  And don’t worry about figuring out what the title refers to – the filmmaker (Martin McDonagh) isn’t even sure.   [4]

Godzilla Minus Zero.  Is there any question about moiself  recommending this?

 

 

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Department Of Addressing The Blue Wave….

….or tsunami, or whatever the historic midterm election rout is now being called.

I allowed moiself  a few days of unbridled joy; then the bridle returned, the elation was reined in, and reality trotted into the paddock of political life….

 

 

There are such high hopes for Democrats, leading legislative reforms come January.  And although Republicans with a conscience (I hear they still exist outside of the rare species exhibits at the Zoo) may join in with the reforms, I can’t help but remember the rest of them who are still seated in Congress, the rest of the Rs who have participated in the madness. It will be their job, along with #47’s Nazi inner circle  clown car cabinet members, to try to make things *even worse* in the next two years, so that come the next election cycle they will be able to say, “Aha!  You were better off with us in charge…”

I’ve been accused of being labeled a cynical optimist re my take on human nature (and thus, politics).  Moiself  would claim the label of hopeful realist, even as I accept the likelihood that Republicans will now double down on making everything (even more) horrible.  I went to bed early last Tuesday, not wanting to know the results and paying no attention to the news.  This strategy allowed me, the next morning at 4:30 am ( effin’ Daylight Savings ),   [5]   to be delighted by the email I receive from friend BP, who emigrated from the USA to Portugal last year.   [6]   BP’s message, and my response:

BP:
In case you are still awake, partying:
 Congratulations!🎊🍾🎉

Moiself:
Thank you! I was hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and didn’t watch any of the news until much later. Now let’s see what the notoriously disorganized Democrats can do with the majority…

As per that second thought of mine…I am trying *not* to think of the countless ways the Dems can blow this, but how they lost the last presidential election (see the upcoming blast from the past department ) looms large in my nightmares.  Please, please, Dems and allies, focus on the big problems, and do not get divided by fringe issues. And if you think your own personal issues are included in my definition of fringe, can you please, for just a minute, at least pretend to sit at the grownup’s table and realize how the good of the many must outweigh the good of the few, if the good doesn’t get it’s head out of its fractionalized ass the few will have even fewer opportunities to thrive.

Translation:  it’s only sports, FFS.  Transgender participation in secondary school athletics is *not* the hill for human rights to die on.

 

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Speaking of not adjusting to a time change…

 DST: Department Of It’s Time To Let This Go

“…Ancient civilizations adjusted daily schedules to the sun more flexibly than DST does, often dividing daylight into 12 hours regardless of daytime, so that each daylight hour became progressively longer during spring and shorter during autumn…
It is a common myth in the United States that DST was first implemented for the benefit of farmers. In reality, farmers have been one of the strongest lobbying groups against DST since it was first implemented. The factors that influence farming schedules…are ultimately dictated by the sun, so the clock change introduces unnecessary challenges….
DST was first implemented in the US with the Standard Time Act of 1918, a wartime measure for seven months during World War I in the interest of adding more daylight hours to conserve energy resources
( excerpts, Wikipedia, Daylight Savings Time )

The consensus from doctors and scientists is that we should have year-round standard time (YRST), for reasons which include but are not limited to:

* YRST aligns with the circadian rhythms (read: the natural light-dark cycle) with which humans evolved.  Our exposure to bright morning sunlight activates the brain, while darker evenings improve sleep quality and allows the body to naturally produce melatonin.

* YRST reduces the long-term risk of heart attacks, strokes, obesity, certain cancers, and mental health/depressive disorders, as well as workplace injuries caused by sleep cycle disruption and deprivation.

* YRST leads to safer morning commutes to work and school; proper natural light-dark cycle alignment increases daytime alertness, cognitive function, and productivity.

There’s a lot more ( see Why Permanent standard time is the healthiest choice ).  It should be a no-brainer.  But here’s what YRST advocates are fighting:  even people with higher-than-average functioning brains often don’t want to acknowledge the evidence when it clashes with their personal preferences.  Even MH, someone trained and “degreed” in the sciences (and who of course and therefore likes to think that he applies scientific reasoning and logic to most-if-not-all areas of his life), when presented or confronted with this YRST evidence, whines  says, “But I *like* it to stay lighter later.”

 

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Department Of A Blast From The Past

Dateline: January 2025.  A new year; a new project: taking an excerpt from a past blog, from the same time frame (the second Friday of whatever month).  My thought at the time: Perhaps moiself  will like this enough that it will turn out to be a regular blog feature.  So far it has, but time, and my capacity for reruns, will tell.

This journey down memory lane is related to the most convincing reason a  YOU-of-all-people-should-write-a-blog-why-aren’t-you-writing-a-blog?!?!?!  ^[7]   friend gave me, all those years ago,   ^[8]   as to why I should be writing a blog: a blog would serve as a journal of sorts for my life.  Thus, journal/diary-resistant moiself  would have some sort of a record, or at least a random sampling, of what was on my mind – and possibly what was on the nation’s mind – during a certain period of time.

Now I can, for example, look back to the second Friday of a years-ago November to see what I was thinking. (or as MH put it, WHAT was I thinking!?!? )

 

Here is an excerpt from my blog of 11-6-24 ( The Country I’m Not Loving ):

Department Of Waiting For The You-Know-What Results
Sub Department Of If The Cheetos Mussolini Wins We Are All Fucked

We, all of us.  Even, and especially, those who think that their guy “won.”

Since as of this writing we don’t know the outcome for certain, here is a bit o’ my fears, if it comes to pass, of why Harris lost:

Dateline: 10-25, watching the first game of the Dodgers-Yankees World Series.  A MAGA ad came on between innings, the ad showing an edited interview between Harris and…(?), with Harris explaining an answer re whether a prisoner could have sex change/affirming surgery, which would of course be at taxpayer expense, if performed while they were imprisoned (Harris seemed to be fumbling – I have no idea of the context of the interview, and of course it was edited by and for the MAGA ad – but she answered yes.)  The ad’s voiceover went on to say how Harris

“…is for they/them, while tR___ is for *you.*”

I loathe the use of wedge issues and exploitation of those on the lower end of the power totem to provoke the fear response.   I despise the fact that such tactics are often effective, which is why the ethically-deficient Right uses them.  And as I watched that ad, thinking of the wide audience it was playing to, I thought to moiself, re the election:  if Harris (and therefore the USA)  loses, it will be because of things like this.

 

 

Things as in, not necessarily that particular issue, but because too many of my well-meaning liberal brethren and sisterthren have shot themselves in the foot with their psychological tone-deafness…and Those People ® who feel lectured to and put upon are exacting some kind of social revenge.

It’s the only theory moiself  can think of to explain (not to excuse – there is no excuse for voting such an openly vile and dangerous, totalitarian-doctrine-proclaiming creature into office) the behavior of someone who would vote for such a man.  Yes of course, it is a poor reflection upon human motivation and behavior, ( Here’s your machete, cut off your nose/spite your face ) but pay attention: there it is.

 

 

How many times have people (usually but not always from the lower economic and education strata) felt silenced or intimidated because they didn’t toe the “progressive” political and cultural lines?  Maybe they have questions on certain social issues; maybe there are things they just don’t understand and therefore, instinctively, tend to fear. 

Maybe they don’t actually *hate* people of different genders and sexual orientations and ethnicities and religions and social classes and political opinions.  But that’s what they get labeled as ( haters; ____ – phobics ), and then they don’t feel as if they can even voice their questions and concerns in certain situations and when speaking with certain people, because if they don’t use the *correct* terminology of the moment, the focus will be on *how* they asked their questions/offered their opinions, rather than on the content of those questions and opinions.  They will be shamed and lectured to if they “misgender” or “dead-name” or “mis-pronoun;” they will be condescended to and corrected when they reference a person’s “race” or ethnicity and use the terms black and white instead of Black and White, or Latino/Latina instead of Latinx…. [9] 

And if the actions and attitudes of aggressive Lefties pushes some centrists or moderates more to the Right, then those Lefties dismiss the migration with their purity-testing mantra:  “Well, it’s no loss, they weren’t really allies in the first place.”

Sadly, as our species has proven time and time again, humans are petty enough to have things like that serve as motivation:  Yeah, it’s possible that, maybe, ultimately, I will be voting against my own self-interest, but that is then…and this is NOW, and watching those self-righteous liberals squirm in the NOW will be worth it.

 

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Freethinkers’ Thought Of The Week     [10]

 

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May you understand and therefore advocate for YRST;
May you pick a worthy political hill to die on;
May you wear a life jacket when you surf the blue wave;
…and may the hijinks ensue.

Thanks for stopping by.  Au Vendredi!

*   *   *

[1] Either alone or with my movie-loving buddy…who has now departed, so it’s me, or me and MH, when his schedule (and interest) allows.

[2] Except for Elizabeth Holmes’ partner’s man parts, on display in a shower scene that should be the picture in the dictionary illustrating the term narcissism.

[3] I do believe this is the first time I’ve used the word skullduggery in this blog.  And sometimes I think all the mystery is gone from this world….

[4] Re the title, McDonagh has said, in several interviews, “Yeah, I’ve got no idea. I like numbers, and I like horses.”

[5] I’m an early riser who still hasn’t adjusted to the time change…which –  IMO and that of a bajillion scientists and doctors studying human health –  NO ONE should have to adjust to, as we should be on standard time, year-round.

[6] which she did (along with her American husband) specifically to get away from what she saw happening in our country. She is a US citizen, originally from The Netherlands.

[7] I was adamant about not writing a blog…thus, the title of the blog I eventually decided to write.

[8] Was it really over twelve years ago?

[9] Despite the fact that the majority of Latinos do *not* use Latinx, and are even bothered and/or offended by that label of generalization.

[10] “free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists.   No one can be a freethinker who demands conformity to a bible, creed, or messiah. To the freethinker, revelation and faith are invalid, and orthodoxy is no guarantee of truth.”  Definition courtesy of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, ffrf.org