Random thoughts...

I just have the 'stache and goatee.  I don't want a longer beard.  They look like you should have critters crawling out of there!  So, I keep mine close cropped and neat.

Kerrick wrote:Uh oh, you should've told me that BEFORE I said ok to her hahahaha!

It's about the only area where my wife will not grant me headship xD

I'm moving in November.  So I'm in the process of packing and stuff.  Rented a 14 ft bin that will take away stuff you don't want and they haul away for you. I rented it for 14 days. It came Thursday and I have been throwing stuff in there since than. Got it half full until I hurt my shoulder last night. Hopefully it will get better.  Moving date is November 1st.

Well I managed to pack all my cds, movies and books,  didn't realize I had so much stuff. 
Cleaned out the bedroom by throwing out the bed and getting also rid of the couch. For the time being I am sleeping on blow up mattress until I move. Then when I move I willl go shopping for a new bed and couch.

Where are you moving to, Hidgxx?

I live in Barrie Ontario.  I'm just moving to a bigger apartment with better access to reliable internet. Been here 11 yrs, living in a tiny 1 bedroom apartment needed something bigger that's all. Just wanted too throw some  stuff out first before I move.

The last few days, I've had this rather frustrating/interesting/exhausting debate/discussion/slogfest with an atheist on Reddit.
Not about faith of all things, but about "systemic racism". He was not a troll, so I've got to give him credit for being decent. Couldn't say the same for myself, which is perhaps unfortunate. (I never resort to name calling, but I do consider myself "trolling" to a degree, as he didn't punch holes in my approach, but I punched holes in his.)

Our common ground is that racism is bad and shouldn't happen anywhere, anytime. We also both agreed, the pretty obvious stuff in society has been addressed, or at least gets addressed quick.

This all started with me saying I've never seen a proper example of systemic racism. Then he started with a link to a Harvard study.
My follow up was akin to "where's the rest of it?". His follow up was akin to "what do you mean 'where is the rest of it?'? Its a complete study."

So after too many hours of mauling words, I've more or less only concluded that when people say "Systemic racism", its not really "throughout the system" like the definition indicates, its just "widely spread" in a system. ("pervasive", not "all")
When I asked for him to define/quantify "pervasive" or "widely spread", he.... couldn't.

I tried using hypotheticals of "systemic air pollution" and "systemic bee stings", trying to get him to pinpoint a standard of cases in an area for the systemic racism classification. I mean, 300 cases or 5 cases could both be "widely spread" in an area. Again, he couldn't quantify it, which I pointed out, made it seem like this was all classified by "feeling" (or assumption) rather than "fact".

The closest we were able to meet, is in an analogy of putting a jigsaw puzzle together.

He saw me as someone missing pieces of the puzzle, but still not knowing what the puzzle was supposed to be of, even though there was really enough there to tell.

I saw him as someone missing pieces of the puzzle, but assuming he knows the shape of the pieces missing, and where they go, even though they're really not there at all.

He also brought up something else that he couldn't properly explain - subconscious racism. People (even a group) being racist, without knowing they're racist. I tried to get him to define the difference between "no racism" in an area, and "subconscious undetected racism" in an area. I mean, if its undetectable, how do you know its there? He couldn't do much more than drool on himself and refer me back to the Harvard link.


The whole experience reminded me of the time I was in this atheist hive, years ago, trying to learn what makes those folks tick. They coined their own custom definitions, of existing definitions. Like, they denounced Atheism being a "belief", but the word belief is a synonym of the word "opinion". I felt like a bully cornering them, "Is atheism an opinion?" and they just repeat ala canned response again, "its not a belief". When I referenced the correlation between belief/opinion, they just dismantled the credibility of dictionaries.

Well, all bets are off if any word can mean anything.

Got myself in "game-shape" with a two-mile walk after work yesterday.  Slept like a log last night.  

That's all.

The Rugby League team I support got through to the Grand Final last night.

Had the strangest dream last night.  I was attending a play being presented by the New England Patriots (my favorite football team).  For some crazy reason, I was talking during the performance and Tom Brady shushed me.  Later on, legendary coach Mike Ditka dropped in and I shook his hand.  Even crazier, today is Mike's birthday.  

Dang this past Friday we got a fair bit of snow and since many of the trees still had their leaves, the snow collected more significantly than would otherwise which caused numerous trees and large branches to fall. Thankfully all of our trees are still standing, though we lost a few pretty sizable branches. A neighbor's tree fell on our shared fence and damaged it some. But on the plus side, that necessitated me buying a chainsaw haha. I had fun using it yesterday!

Why are flu cases down 98% from last year?

https://techstartups.com/2020/10/27/new-data-shows-influenza-flu-cases-drop-98-percent-worldwide-time-2019-flu-cases-labeled-misreported-covid-19-patients-misdiagnosed-c/

I can't believe how much unessential junk we've accumulated over 16yrs. We are trying to get our house ready to sell and it seems like an impossible task just to box everything. Getting us really frustrated as the day we list draws closer. Then we have to find somewhere new to live.

Moving because I have anxieties and need to find somewhere still close but quieter to live.

It does mean that I have not bought any new music for months. All going on diy.

Moving day tomorrow and Sunday.  Been packing stuff in bins and boxes that last few days. I believe I'll be staying with my sister Sunday night so I  can set stuff up on Monday.

Hope the move went well Hidgxx.

We are still preparing our home for sale and currently having floating floor boards installed which is costing more and taking longer than quoted for. Once finished I quickly need to clean and then put all the furniture back in the rooms.

The pressure is now on because we have signed a contract to buy a new house we really liked.

Thanks for asking Erasmus 
The move went smoothly over 2 days . Now I'm just unpacking and putting stuff in the right places. 
Only one glitch with moving here, I have no mail box.
The apartment that I rented is so brand new that the paperwork still needs approval from different departments in the city. So it could be awhile before I  get my own mailbox.

So apparently white Tom Brady winning the superbowl during Black History Month is racist.

What is wrong with people...

Why isn't it sexist? Women didn't play...

Why isn't it ableist? No one disabled was on the field...

Anyone transgender on either team? Isn't that transphobic of the NFL?

LOL I hadn't heard about that, but as ridiculous as that is, it's not surprising...  Strange times we're living in, that's for sure.  I am curious what the longterm effects of all this will be: words like "racism" don't mean anything anymore because they're applied to such absurd uses like that.  If I hear someone's a "racist," I don't know if they were wearing white hoods at a public lynching or if they once made an off-color (no pun intended) joke in middle school.

Kerrick wrote:LOL I hadn't heard about that, but as ridiculous as that is, it's not surprising...

I ran into "it" accidentally.  

https://twitter.com/SQUlDZ/status/1358605363034132481
https://twitter.com/_itzjanderson/status/1358656736111001602
https://twitter.com/aidencentral/status/1358625115211259904
https://twitter.com/iintrepid/status/1358617983967502340
https://twitter.com/meenaharris/status/1358547642221883394 (the niece of the vice president)

Sorry if reading those or the replies melts your brain a little.  It melted mine some.

Kerrick wrote:Strange times we're living in, that's for sure.  I am curious what the longterm effects of all this will be: words like "racism" don't mean anything anymore because they're applied to such absurd uses like that.  If I hear someone's a "racist," I don't know if they were wearing white hoods at a public lynching or if they once made an off-color (no pun intended) joke in middle school.

That's a great point, and I don't know either.  20 years ago when someone was considered a "racist", they appeared to have a bias toward people for their skin color and were most likely prone to other hate.  

Now a racist is anyone who drinks cows milk.

My goodness... yes, I most certainly lost a few brain cells with those tweets!  But I see your woke-tweets and raise you to possibly the wokest:

https://notthebee.com/article/i-found-the-most-woke-tweet-of-the-super-bowl-and-i-feel-the-author-deserves-an-award

Brought the laptop to work tonight.  Extra time to kill...had to let the car warm up a bit, as it will be for roughly the next week.  Jamming to TQT "Gelatinous," after sampling the new tracks from Trytan's Blood of Kings.  

I'm writing again! Hallelujah! Just a bit more brushing up of the intro to Oroborous, but it feels great!! A little ditty thus far about a runaway Canadian girl named Alanis (not Morrisette, sillies!), whom is being pursued by a band of creepy human traffickers.  Say a prayer for the girl as she withstands the onslaught...but I get ahead of myself!!!

Kerrick wrote:My goodness... yes, I most certainly lost a few brain cells with those tweets!  But I see your woke-tweets and raise you to possibly the wokest:

https://notthebee.com/article/i-found-the-most-woke-tweet-of-the-super-bowl-and-i-feel-the-author-deserves-an-award

I agree. That single tweet pretty much encompasses the thought processes behind the whole "wokeness" movement.

Kerrick wrote:My goodness... yes, I most certainly lost a few brain cells with those tweets!  But I see your woke-tweets and raise you to possibly the wokest:

https://notthebee.com/article/i-found-the-most-woke-tweet-of-the-super-bowl-and-i-feel-the-author-deserves-an-award

My goodness.  Snowflake of the Year stuff right there!!

I bet Dem peach mints don't taste so good now.