palordrolap

“I’m a million different people from one day to the next; I can’t change my mould, no no.” — Bittersweet Symphony

We all show rotating aspects of ourselves, but we remain fundamentally the same. Unless something drastic happens that changes how those aspects present or function anyway.

(Maybe that lyric doesn’t mean what I’m reading into it, but it’s what I’ve taken from it. That’s a funny thing about art.)

So yeah, I’ve looked back through comments I’ve made and realised that I knew something at the time that I’d since forgotten, and seen how smart I’d been - or how utterly cringe-inducing, and known that at some point, that if the cringe is bound to return, so might the smart. Hopefully. Maybe. Please.

There’s also the fact that we distil ourselves down for a comment. Present the best side, or the best of the aspect we’re going for. Even trolls do this. Unfortunately. So when we look back, not at all in the same frame of mind that we were at the time, it’s like looking at the highlights of someone else’s life on some other social media, not seeing everything else that’s going on besides.

I probably won’t remember all the edits and corrections I’ve made to this comment before submitting the first time. Only time knows how future me will perceive it, should I ever look back.

Panic attacks suck. Rationality goes out of the window. “This is it. I’m going to die.”

For me, stress plus a sudden-onset painful physical trigger usually brings them on. The painful trigger can be anything from a muscle sprain to a really bad stomach ache (we’re talking “I now think I might have some idea what period cramps are like and I don’t have a womb” kind of pain levels here.)

Even knowing about previous experiences doesn’t always help. That nagging thought that you’re going to die while feeling terrible in a stressful situation.

Ironically, I’ve wished I was dead many times, but during a panic attack, suddenly survival instinct is the one ringing the alarm bells. WTF brain.

Passed out in a hospital during one of them. Pectoral pain + Stressful day at work = Must be having a heart attack and going to die. Nope. Just a sprained pec and a panic attack.

Now visualise pregnant folks indicating what’s going on with them with exaggerated hand gestures, poses and facial expressions.

And then other folks wearing a carrier containing a post-gestational infant doing much the same.

Conclusion: That space is generally reserved for underdeveloped human offspring.

All forms of cured pork. Ham. Bacon. Gammon. No thanks. (“Oh no! Not bacon!”)

This isn’t for religious reasons either. Regular pork in a roast? Sausages, even? Yes please. But nothing cured.

There’s something about the tanginess of cured pork that I really don’t like.

And for whatever reason, the supermarkets here seem to stock 75% forms of ham and 25% everything else in the cold cuts / sandwich meats fridges.

Occasionally, I’ve bought pork slices that didn’t look to be cured, but upon opening they’ve been more pink than I thought and had that tangy smell and taste. Bait and switch. If it’s ham, say so, goddammit.

Will it kill me? No. Will I eat it if it’s all that’s available? Sure. (As I did with the aforementioned slices). Heck, I even almost enjoyed a cold BLT once (pre-cooked and cooled bacon isn’t as powerful somehow), but I’d really prefer not to.

You might find your left hand does more than you think. Try not using it for a while. Put it in a pocket, tuck it in your waistband or don’t put your left arm through a sleeve and keep it and the hand inside clothing.

Pay attention to how often you’re frustrated because you’ve been using your left hand for ancillary work all along and now you can’t do any of that.

Ancillary work is often as important as the main task.

And part of the problem with trying to use a non-dominant hand for a dominant task is that the dominant hand also has little-to-no idea how to do the supporting non-dominant work properly.

NB: If you do decide to artificially gimp your left arm, however, uh, 'armlessly, do take care not to fall over or have some other kind of mishap. At the first sign of tempted fate, ungimp that arm.

Edit: With apologies to those rare folks with only one good arm who have been getting by without any kind of ancillary arm help for a significant period of time, and with genuine sympathy for those who’ve recently actually lost the use of an arm.

As I said in a comment elsewhere: In the movie Field of Dreams, the ghost voice says “If you build it, they will come.”, but fails to say “Oh yeah, you have to look after it once you’ve done that. You’re gonna need a ride-on mower.”

During various exoduses[1] from other social media platforms, people excitedly created accounts and also attempted to re-create the places, magazines as they’re called here, that they were familiar with. And then they didn’t want to post content in those communities, nor did they want to have to manage them, because they hadn’t done that elsewhere.

They expected the content to magically appear as it had done in those other places.

When it did not, they went elsewhere or perhaps back whence they came.

While I am very much guilty of expecting the magical appearance of posts, I can live with what’s available here, and Federated from other places. I was self-aware enough to not create any magazines, though. I do not want to buy that mower.

[1]: Exodi would be the Latinate plural. Exodoi would be the Greek. You may now relax.

Your opinions are valid.

Do they mean weary, or do they mean wary?

Weary means worn down (it’s literally the “wear” as in “wear and tear” with a y on the end to make an adjective), usually signifying tiredness or apathy.

Wary means overly aware (it’s literally the “ware” as in “aware” with a y on the end to make an adjective*), usually signifying nervousness or apprehension.

Given the context, they could mean either. Or both.

* Though for orthographic reasons, the e is dropped. I see you, fellow pedants.

I saw that comic the other day. The answer to this is “It was a Hamas base of operations.”

To over-egg this comment: “What gave you the impression Hamas were there?” “There were Palestinians there.” “…” “…”

C’mon Joe, you’re the guy who said “I’m Irish” when talking about the relationship between Britain and Ireland. The parallels here ought to be keeping you on your toes.

Here’s a capital city one for the Brits and fans of this fair isle:

Edinburgh is due north of Cardiff.

This one blew my mind when I figured it out. I mean: Scotland is north of England. Edinburgh is in the east of Scotland. Wales is west of (most of) England.

You might (as I did) expect Edinburgh to be closer to being north of London, not so far west that it has the same longitude as Cardiff.

Can’t fully agree with the sentiment there. There are innocents in Russia who very much don’t deserve any of this.

But Putin though? Yeah. Him specifically and anyone who supports him.

Yeah, I’ve seen their name before. I notice they haven’t responded yet, so either they’re not online right now or they’re conjuring a really epic take-down of my point.

I was actually slightly afraid of coming back here to check because I didn’t know what I’d find.

The other possibility is that I’ve made a point that can’t be refuted within their ideology. After all “The West” as they see it is precisely the sort of big guy stomping the little guy that I clearly don’t like. And I’m not sure I completely disagree with that point.

deleted by creator

Are you somehow closer to the truth, or are you, like the rest of us, getting news from various sources and making your own mind up?

Because if so, my ad hominem kind of applies to all of us internet forum idiots and armchair politicians. Those of us without obvious declarations in our profiles could be argued to be the stealth ones, trying to swing people this way and that with who knows what agenda.

Why do we reach the conclusions we do anyway? Do we stand to gain anything?

At least in your case, it seems more obvious why you do, wearing your colours on your sleeve (metaphorically speaking) as you do.

If you would like an inkling of why I think the way I do: I’m never in favour of it when a larger power goes in, guns blazing, to override a smaller one, like there’s literally no other way. And they always, always go too far, refuse to back down, and a huge number of people die senselessly because some ideologue thinks that a lesson needs to be taught. (Curiously, the ideologues themselves tend to be a long, long way from the bullets.)

It’s happened in history so many times. My own damn country has been the aggressor. It wasn’t right then, and it’s not right when it’s done now.

Please note that you literally cannot tell which conflict I’m talking about here. There’s at least three.

Your profile picture (at time of writing) is literally a Russian cosmonaut. Your bias is showing. (Pretty sure your profile banner is from Russian propaganda too, though I’m sure you’ll correct me if that’s untrue.)

But I suppose that does make you more overt and honest. Not necessarily right, but definitely honest.

(Unless you’re an anti-Russian double-bluff. I can’t profess to be an expert on the psychology of this sort of thing.)

Were they sugar free and were they to help him do that thing that we often ask if bears do in the woods?

It’s not like Israel needs any more weapons against a rag-tag bunch of terrorists whose existence they - arguably indirectly - continue to foment.

Yes, I know Israel’s take on the matter is that the existence of Hamas is precisely why cruelty to Palestine is “necessary” rather than the other way around, but at this point does it matter whether the chicken or the egg came first? Those who say yes on both sides - even if they differ about which came first - are using it as a crutch at this point.

The whole thing now is a big kid stomping the ever-loving f**k out of a smaller kid because “he kicked my shin! he kicked my shin!” so that obviously makes whatever they do OK, and in fact, let’s have some other big kids (one wearing a stars and stripes shirt of all things?!) help out with the stomping.

And tomorrow, had this not suddenly escalated, the original big kid would have gone through the smaller kid’s pockets for lunch money, and maybe a house or two like usual.

(Please note that - goofy metaphors aside - I’m not happy about the civilian deaths that have occurred recently, regardless of what the dead might have believed while they were alive. In war, it’s almost always the wrong people who die.)

The Jewish god (and thus that of the Christians and the Muslims because it’s the same guy) was once part of his own pantheon. He even had a wife at one point.

It’s not thought he’s the same god as Zeus/Jupiter, but his name is suspiciously similar if you squint a bit (a bit more than you do to compare Zeus-Piter, Zeus’s “full name” anyway, because that’s more of a “holy shit” realisation if you don’t know). Almost like the name might have mutated slightly under the influence of neighbouring religions.

Consider: When you’re frightened of saying your god’s name even though you think you might know it, it can help to make it sound a bit more like other peoples’ main god, after all. Your god can’t get mad because you’re not saying his name, and the heathens might start to like the comparison and convert.

Another thing to note, regarding pantheons, is that Jewish god is quoted as saying “you shall have no other gods before me”. That, depending on interpretation, could imply that the other gods are still around twiddling their thumbs and playing solo paddle-ball or something, but we mortals aren’t allowed to talk to them any more.

YHWH will pitch a hissy fit if we do.

Edits: Formatting. Typos. The usual.

Hot take

Aw man. If the photo is anything to go by, they might have cured it of racism, which you’d think was a good thing and that I’m a racist asshole, but the fix could actually increase its use for racism.

That is, ironically, a system that’s only really good at identifying one race (usually white people like a large percentage of the people who made the systems) is a bit harder to (mis)use that way.

The only way to (mis)use an accidentally racist facial recognition system is to persecute everyone it can’t identify, and you wouldn’t need an expensive system to do that. And it’s a lot easier to get called out for what you’re doing, either way.

When the system works on all people of all skin colours, this can allow a racist user of it to pick and choose and plead innocence.

Slightly more mainstream hot take

Facial recognition is dystopian and should be yaten into the sun.