Conversations With Dad

I called dad while I was driving home; it’s good to check up and make sure everyone’s doing OK. At my age, one cannot take one’s parents’ presence for granted, anymore. I wanted to gloat a little bit about the amazing way that science has come through for us, in spite of the bureaucratic roadblocks thrown in its path – the Covid-19 is toast, like a certain other malignant pathogen I won’t name – it’s now just a matter of time and not stumbling as we approach the finish-line.

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Grain

Etching blades is a quietly satisfying process. You put the thing in some liquid and some bubbles appear; then you wait. Sometimes you take it out and scrub or rinse it and put it back. What you don’t want to do is take a nap (which turns into a full night’s sleep) while you’ve got a blade in the tank.

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Musings About Rigging Elections

The last month has been eye-opening, indeed. Already a non-fan of representative democracy, I’ve learned that I was insufficiently cynical – when you have a system that has been designed to be corrupt, it’s rife with holes to allow corruption; such a system cannot withstand adverse gamespersonship. It is built-in.

Are you tired of this stuff? I’m sick of it, personally. It’s depressing. I feel like I’ve been wandering around blissfully ignoring how horrible nearly half of my fellow citizens and neighbors happen to be. To be fair, since I live in deep “Trump country” it’s more than half. What’s wrong with these people? [I actually have a fairly good idea but we don’t have time or inclination to do a class analysis of American history]

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Heavy Metal

This makes me happy. I wish someone would record the sound, which must be amazing. I bet you can hear it a long way off; it’d make a great sound-track for Mordor.

[I’m sorry, by the way, if this blog is a bit light and fluffy lately. I’m trying to keep my mind on the good things, not the horrible situation that we are all in. Except I’m aware that the horrible situation will probably never get better, ever, again.]

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