melchar

It's been a week. It looks like the results will be counted and that there is enough momentum that [cross fingers] the new Congress will be seated. Still 2 months of terror to get through, first. That stated, the Dems need new leadership. Toss the craven toadies who have been 'good sports' and tried 'not to rock the ship of state' and who want to be viewed as 'fair and balanced' guys.

FFS, start by impeaching Kennedy & Hegseth. TBF both of them are more toxic than the Turnip at the Top. Get the Epstein files in front of the public / the media / the COURTS. Prosecute Musk & his minions for the data scrape they did on all of our federal records. Prosecute everyone who has enriched themself during the last 2 years. Get use the eff out of Iran. The U.S. lost and has committed war crimes: murdering the entire slate of moderate diplomats before the war even began, murdering babies, children & deliberately bombing hospitals, letting fricking AI choose military targets without adequate [or any!] oversight.

No appeasement. No mercy. Do not stop until all the felons have been charged & punished.

Cool weekend. Friday the 13th, followed by 'Pi Day' [3.14] - sadly, still not feeling that well - due to pneumonia & the healing tooth area - & now it's the Ides of March.

Read that what Caesar said was Greek, 'Kae su, teknon' [that Shakespeare translated to 'Et tu Brute'] but which means 'you too, child' - and this ...

https://www.greece-is.com/ides-march-julius-caesars-last-words-really-greek/
[summary quote]
Among modern scholars, the most widely accepted theory is that Caesar either said nothing as he lay dying, or uttered the Greek phrase “Kaì sý, téknon.” Upper class Romans would have moved easily between Latin and Greek in everyday speech, but while the oft-used translation of the Greek is “You too, my son?” others have argued the phrase – commonly used in ancient Greek comedy – could have also meant, “Screw you, kid!” – reminding us that Caesar, a seasoned soldier, was defiant to the last.

Well, it's been another day of feeling a 'I wish this was a unique sensation'. This evening, I was chewing a bite of soft bread with dinner and one of my [lower jaw] teeth fell out. No warning: just .. plop. It's one of the ones I got filled last week, too - a lower right bicuspid.

Thankfully I felt the oddness, so I didn't chew down on it or swallow it. Recovered the tooth to show my dentist - hopefully tomorrow. At least the area is only mildly uncomfortable right now. Hope it doesn't get more painful.

Have spent more time having doctor appointments. Went in again and I still have lungs ... pneumonia still there & got a prescription for a different inhaler for the next 3 months - which is basically albuterol with added steroids. Ugh, the idea that it may take that long to recover from pneumonia. They want to image my lungs next [after the 2 batches of X-rays] for a better view in there, but yikes. Plus I'm told it'll be a while before they can get me in for that.

The most surprising thing I learned this time was that I've somehow managed to lose about 15 pounds since Xmas, despite being pretty immobile & enervated/lacking energy.

...Though I'm still forcing myself to do my daily exercises. I also got measured and am still 5'5". Since I've been doing the mostly stretching exercising that include hip curls that works my spine since I was 15, I'm guessing that is why at 68 I haven't lost any height from being a teen. So ... yay ... but I bet those pounds will return.

There and back again, 2025 edition. Sunday before Xmas = Drove the 400 miles south to visit my sister/his sister & brother. Stayed with his sister - who is the BEST hostess AND has 2 adorable black labs [Flint & Cantina] who are worth ALL the pettings. Spent pleasant times with siblings, even though it meant dealing with the daystar/being awake during the day & getting my eyes blasted by way-too-bright daylight.

Had looked at the long-range forecast which said it would be clear in SoCal during the week, with a 50/50 chance for sprinkles on Xmas day. [insert laughter] Starting Tuesday, the sprinkles began. Decent rain on both Xmas eve and day. Then, all during the drive today [Friday] it rained the entire 400 miles going north to back home: sprinkles sometimes & driving rain at other times.

On the one hand, I love the rain & people were driving carefully - so this was good. OTOH, everyone drove more slowly [GOOD!] so the drive took longer. Thankfully, there were no accidents on the way back in OUR direction. Southwards was no so lucky - and much of 152 from Gustine to Casa de Fruta was stationary due to a mudslide, so I'm glad we were headed north.

So glad to be home, safe, sound & warm.

Trey & I got our flu shots & Covid vaccinations early on Thursday morning. Trey was feverish by night, full of body aches. He felt bad yesterday - and was fully recovered by Saturday night.

Me? My arm is still sore from the jabs and it's only -now- that I'm beginning to feel a little achy. Not fevery yet. My immune system is just kind of pathetic.

Just a note about another AI crap-en-ing of original content producers can be seen summed up rather nicely here = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpVnx4_yqTo
->> by Second Wind / Yahtzee Croshaw.

I'm not having problem with alerts, since I have none set. I'm also in Second Wind's Patreon [among others subscribed to] - but I use my own list of bookmarks that I visit every day or so looking for new content. Thus this is not an issue for me, but I've heard complaints from some friends who are [*gasp*] different from me and use other methods, so I thought the topic worth commenting on.

Just paid some attention to the plot, such as it is, of 'The Last of Us' - and I'm annoyed. The game - & apparently the series adapted from it - use the 'magic science' approach to immune response. A fungus infects victims, colonizes them & is an excuse for predatory zombies. [Sure, why not.]

But the problem is that when someone 'infected' with the fungus doesn't convert to fungal predator, the kid is called 'immune' - and is sought to provide BRAIN MATTER to search for a cure.

So - science magic. Wave the words around & provide Joel [the MC] with an ethical choice of letting the kid be murdered, or kill all the ones who want to murder the kid. And it is MURDER, since evidence is there that this 'scientific' approach has been used before to unknown numbers of OTHERS exhibiting fungal resistance and failed to produce a 'vaccine' every time.

What SHOULD they have done? NOT murder another victim, that's for damn sure. So - false choice for Joel. 100% save the kid/kill the threats.

Magic science COULD have done useful things. Like - keep the kid healthy & do intensive egg harvesting / embryo implantation in hopes that the kid's offspring - along with sprogs of OTHER, NON-MURDERED resistant folk - show the same resistance to the fungus.

OR be terrible & imprison the kid - along with other resistants after the failure of prior vaccine attempts. The logical inference of why vaccines showed promise & then failed is that it takes living blood / white cells / 'X factor' or some other 'life goo' to keep the fungus at bay. So imprison the resistants - keep them very healthy - and do transfusions from them to those in power.

Heck - even try to make an actual vaccine or effective fungicide without using lethal amounts of brain matter. Use non-lethal methods to harvest blood, bone marrow, bile, tiny amounts of cerebral fluid from LIVING resistants & keep trying other methods until they find something that works.

But the cycle of capturing and killing resistant individuals eliminates the chance for humans to breed for resistance or immunity - and this annoyed the holy living heck out of me. Because you can TELL that the prepared operating theater & 'doctor'-shill was using the lure of the 'magic cure'/vaccine to gain protection - and they had done this before and failed every time. It was the 'medicine is magic' promise that motivated everyone NOT a doctor to willingly die, enabling the continued lie.

Today was ... 'special' = my keyboard cord, which was a little frayed - snapped. Digging out the replacement keyboard [ALWAYS have the next keyboard & mouse - & headphones - ready to hop in] - but it seems to be a LAW that this takes at least 30 minutes

Plus finally was able to see the animated film 'Flow': pretty animation, nice music, very satisfying & I very much enjoyed it

Being sick sucks. This is the first day - in almost 2 weeks - that I have felt somewhat marginally better than I did yesterday. GETTING sick was easy. RECOVERING from being sick just takes so freaking long. I'm lucky that this was 'just' a miserable head & chest cold - but DANG I hate being sick.