my journal: various subjects, opinionating, CW at times
The title explains itself.
If you're interested in the ramblings of a middle-aged man with chronic conditions who, at times, sees things a little too clearly for his own good, then read on.
Sometimes I get political, but it won't be all the time.
I don't mind comments in general but if you're going to differ with what I write, that's fine--as long as you can explain your position clearly & reasonably. Rants, shouting & general incoherence will be ignored or flagged, depending on the situation. Try to remember that not everyone else in this world holds your beliefs.
Every so often I may post art or snapshots of projects I'm working on.
If you're still interested after reading all the above, great. (I do wonder at how much time you have on your hands, though)
...phuck.
Guess I can't drink the way I used to...four years ago.
😵
@slowdecline48 Oh man 😬 Hope you feel better soon!
@mytwistedsoul Thanks, I'm working on it...by hardly doing anything at all. 😄
After some sleep & almost a complete fast today (water + < half a small bottle of milk), I feel somewhat more human.
@slowdecline48
Those are healthy meal & drink for well sleeping 😴 🛌
@slowdecline48 Glad you're feeling a little more human. Hopefully after the oatmeal, milk and rest you're closer to 100%
One of the fast pieces I did before I came home, shat brown lava & spent hours in bed right afterward:
As of a few minutes after 10. I am content. Head hurts as usual, but the above is good news for me.
The spot price per oz. crossed the $2,700 level on the 17th. From Oct. 21st '23 to now, the value of gold has gone up a bit over 38%.
The point here is not gold; the exact asset doesn't really matter as long as you do your research & think it over before buying. The above shows the power of holding onto a sound investment. Don't worry about daily market movements or price fluctuations; what happens in a day, week or month doesn't matter very much. Just figure out what assets are best for you, buy them, & hold 'em until you're old enough that all there is left is selling & enjoying the profits. Difficult to do at times, but it's not hard to understand. Play the long game, not the short game.
Screenshots from one of today's articles:
Sure, America is in decline. I've known it for a good while now. Our economic growth is largely debt-fueled, & the main ethnic stocks compose a shrinking majority. But most of Europe is further downhill than us & sliding more quickly, too. Putting it in very rough terms, global economic differences can be summed up thusly:
- The US innovates
- China duplicates
- Europe regulates
That's it, in a nutshell.
Some of our most glaring problems can be found in European nations in even worse form. Unlike with us, their immigrant class is almost exclusively from Muslim-majority countries. In parts of England, France, Norway & Germany the migrants & their offspring have carved out ghettos or banlieues for themselves; to varying degrees, the governments of their host nations effectively do not control those areas, which is why they're nests of crime & Islamic radicalism. Evidence for this is not hard to find. They have drug problems too...two years ago I stumbled across a 1-hr documentary on m€th addiction in & around London. Meanwhile, their economies continue to move sluggishly.
The overall impression I've been getting from Europe (particularly nations of western Europe) is of a congeries of peoples preparing for their own retirement. They seem largely content to let the US do the grunt work of supporting Ukraine (except for Germany's recent contributions of tanks). From what I can tell, there is a broad & usually unspoken malaise among their younger generations...mostly aware of what's going on, & resigned to it. They don't show much ambition overall. Most European nations are full of peoples who have, in essence, given up.
America is in descent, yes. But we haven't yet given up entirely as a nation. We may not do that anytime soon. We may--as I've predicted--slowly fragment into Balkan-style ministates in all but name, some of them mutually hostile to each other. Who knows? I can only extrapolate from present trends; when I gaze into my crystal ball, the future shows dimly if at all.
D∆mn. I'm a poet & didn't even know it.
"Countless factors have contributed to this development, but one is the way in which Western Europeans have lost what the Spanish philosopher Miguel de Unamuno famously called the ‘tragic sense of life’. They have forgotten what [Stefan] Zweig and his generation so painfully learnt: that everything you love, even the greatest and most cultured civilisations in history, can be swept away by people who are unworthy of them."
- Douglas Murray, The Strange Death of Europe
Since the past Friday night/Saturday morning, it hasn't let up most of the time. My guts have mostly calmed down but the C-clamp is still torqued on my head...have barely gotten anything done.
I have to do something about this, & soon.
Really hope it doesn't involve oxycodone...or any similar narcotic med....
@slowdecline48 Could it be related to the new meds? (I think you mentioned something about new meds) Would an ice pack help? Sometimes they help when I get migraines. It really sucks when they stick around for days. I hope it eases soon Slow
@mytwistedsoul Good question. The new med was supposed to ease the pain, but as far as I can tell it hasn't done diddly-sh1t.
@slowdecline48 It really sucks when the meds don't work the way they say it will or it makes things worse. Your headaches do they normally last for days at a time?
If "normal" applies...yes. Not always. Atmospheric conditions are definitely a factor. This year's storms made me lie down about three days before each one arrived. Amazing how a hurricane can lower barometric pressure for hundreds of square miles in any direction. How 'bout you? Do your migraines put you down for days on end?
The last ENT doc I saw, a few weeks ago, said what I have may not be Meniére's disease after all. We don't have an exact dx yet but he did mention "vestibular migraine" a couple times--that's his current guess.
If that's what I have, well...it's still permanent. The doc may not be too far off. My dad used to get migraines, I believe when he was in his 40's & 50's. For all I know, I might have some ultra-rare condition that 90% of doctors don't even consider & half of 'em haven't even heard of. I hope that isn't the case.
More info about vestibular migraines is here.
It is possible I misled you in the interview we did a while back, @MistyMagic. I didn't do it on purpose. Am unsure if it needs an update or not.
@slowdecline48 😂
Over about the last three days, it's gotten bad enough that I'm writing haikus again.
After three bowlfuls of soup & more sleep, I finally managed to get off my (_|_) & leave the apartment anthill...
Bought my birthday present. It's late but also something I need...my first saw.
By that, I do not mean a hand saw of any kind.
The plan is to get to the property next week, figure out which trees are going down, then mark them & cut a few. The tops are coming off, too. Will need a truck...a small pickup will do. Whatever small logs I can load & are worth the trouble (if any) will go back to my place, where I shall lug them upstairs to the patio where they can dry out a bit. Hopefully. Am figuring this will take a couple days...the smart thing to do would be to bring supplies: water, comestibles, a first-aid kit just in case, etc. Can't forget the machete.
To those of you who are religious: if you ever felt like praying for me, next Wednesday & after would be a fine time for that.1 I will most likely call upon the FSM.2
1Feel free, @Helgafy ... You know I don't follow Yeshua but if I did, I would pray to him now. TBH I don't care whose deity it is or what his/her name is, as long as I don't lose a limb or get flattened by a falling tree.
2Flying Spaghetti Monster.
@slowdecline48 Congratulations on your new saw! I will definitely keep you in my thoughts and I have to admit I'm a little intrigued at the thought of praying to the flying spaghetti monster 😁😂
Don't forget safety glasses and maybe a pair of gloves 😉 (I have an emoji for gloves 🧤) i never knew 😂
Thank you, Twisty... There's some good GIFs here:
@slowdecline48 Lol! The flying spaghetti monster! 😂 😂
There's some really questionable ones tbh. Like really questionable one definitely wouldn't get Cups stamp of approval 😂
@mytwistedsoul Caught that prayer request tonight. That's sweet of you. But yeah, I have work gloves (three pairs), an old motorcycle helmet, two pair of shades (will get safety goggles if I can--yesterday was the saw, fuel-oil mixture & spare parts. Pricey!), good steel-toed work boots that lace up. Some protection, in other words.
🤔 Now it's Friday... Got a pile of old edger blades sitting around. If there is some way to fasten them to a cheap leather vest (or thick denim if the thrift store doesn't have any leather items), it would work as temporary armor. Edger blades are steel, a bit over 3 mm thick. The best stuff to protect you from a flipping chainsaw blade is kevlar or spectra fiber but right now I can't spring for it. Failing that, steel should at least stop the teeth from getting through.
All the above is only if I lose control of the saw. I have no intention of that, of course, but still...safety first, plan for the Murphy factor, etc.
@slowdecline48 I was talking with two of the people on that list and one asked for prayers and well, your flying spaghetti monster lol and thought why not.
The only reason I wouldn't concentrate on cutting & felling is if I have a flareup. If that should occur then I'm quitting for the day. Seriously.
Other reasons to quit will include tiredness & there being less than an hour of daylight. Sure, I'd like to get a certain number of trees down & logs on my patio but if I don't achieve that, f**k it. *shrug* I can always come back another day & finish it.
If I don't have the energy to focus & I keep going physically, that's like playing Russian roulette. Nooooo thank you.
@slowdecline48 I love when autocorrect leaves off a letter 😅 it was supposed to say I *can't see you going all crazy. You're a smart guy and you know your limitations and that's a damn good thing imo. I've seen too many times when taking trees down goes wrong and it's a wonder that nobody got hurt seriously
@mytwistedsoul
Twist! How wonderful and perfect is your pfp! I wish you (and I) a fine week Twist. On YT I saw a video with relaxing songs (wintertime - snowing). And then came this bird - blue wings and a chest in orange colour. (I'm thinking - What a great imagination our Creator has!). I was of course thinking of you when I saw that blue bird.
@Helgafy Thank you! 😊 I thought it might be nice to dress as a pirate for Halloween. Aww thank you for the wish for a fine week and for thinking of me while you saw the bluebird on YouTube ❤️ I hope you have a wonderful week filled with many good things too! Much love to you ❤️
@slowdecline48
Hi decline.
I like to laugh, but I'm very serious about Jesus Christ, my saviour and God - the wonderful creator. I have been thinking a bit about you. One time I wrote I would pray for you. Then you said something like "Yes Helga, you can come in a car with a megaphone and a red nose shouting the prayer." (It was not exactly those words, but the car, nose and megaphone were there). So I stopped writing to you because I didn't like your sence of humour with for me holy matters (praying to the highest force in the universe). But - I have written a note to myself that I will pray for you Wednesday and the 2 days after. I'll pray to God in the name of Jesus Christ. - Another thing; Trump likes the dictators like Hitler and his officers. (I think Trump was born when the 2. world-war ended). Crazy times in the US I must say. If he looses the election there will also be crazy times after the election (as 4 years ago). Maybe you don't like it, but I dare to bless you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
@slowdecline48
And here is also a fine Bibleverse for you and for me today "decline" - from "The Old testament".
@Helgafy At this point, I'll accept any blessing I can find. Perhaps I'm not supposed to accept Christian blessings, halakhically speaking,* but I'll take 'em anyway. What I'm planning on is dangerous. Most of the trees I plan to fell are small ones...but not all of them are. Figuring on felling at least one of the pine trees...the pines on my land are not massive but they're no less than 15"/38.1 cm. at the base, & at least 40 feet/12.9 m. tall...probably more like 50 feet. Once the tree is down, then comes the branch removal & cutting into sections.
People have been killed--& worst of all, crippled for life--doing this sort of thing.
So at this point, I will accept blessings & prayers from wherever they come.
Apologies for offending you a while back. My humor is not always the most polite, & I happen to be a confirmed cynic. (If I weren't a cynic & didn't have tendencies to observe & analyze rather than just believe, I would go to synagogue on the regular, take our dietary laws more seriously, study Torah, etc.)
Re the election: Don't let the news media's three-ring circus get to you! In an election year, American coverage of it is notoriously sensationalistic & overdramatized. I agree that this election is important; that being said, I know the United States quite well. I don't like Kamala Harris but yes...she is the better candidate for the job overall. If Trump should win--which I doubt will occur, given most of current polls--the US will not become another Na.zi Germany. We are too much into consumerism & making money, & our history is nothing like the old Prussian militarism. What will most likely happen, should Trump win, is that corruption will increase considerably & we would, in certain ways, start to resemble a Third World country. Try not to worry about it too much. You're thousands of miles away, after all. 😃
*Halakha = the transliteration of the Hebrew word for Jewish religious law. As you surely know, in Judaism there are a great many rules.
@slowdecline48
Hi decline. I accept your apologies. I have prayed for the 5 of you today (twist mentioned all of you at the prayersection), and for Heather and Glen and for 3 friends i.r.l. (2 of them living in another city so I don't see them)- that's 10 together - all my fingers to count - lol.
When you become a Christian you don't have to follow all the rules of the Tora(?) - old Testament because Jesus Christ came with the New Covenent - that we shall love each other.
@slowdecline48
I wish someone could teach and help you with the saw. Outside Haugesund, where I lived when I was between 1-18 years old we had a holidayhouse by the fjord. (We lived in H. in our home the rest of the year). My brother has the house now since my parents are not here any more. We had a lot of spruce trees there. In Norway some persons in prison can for some hours go outside the prison ("open prison") to work. So my brother had some coming to our vacation-house and cut the trees down.
Really.... I bet your brother watched them closely the entire time they were on the property!
@slowdecline48
lol! He took them fishing afterwards! You have a fine day. Must we all be strong together.
@Helgafy I've used a chainsaw before, though it was ages ago. (I was 19! How time flies...) Have also done a fair amount of research--print sources as well as a couple of the better YT channels. Granted I am not too experienced, but I'm also not goin' in stupid.
One thing I've learned so far: loggers & tree professionals are not all as unarticulate as the old stereotype implies. Some of them write & speak rather well.
For your amusement, gentle reader...the article is over 5 years old, but it's fairly typical of my state of residence:
Florida Man mayor smoked crack, practiced medicine sans license...
@Helgafy For the first time in 36 years the "Post" has not endorsed any president. Which, in my humble opinion says what they think of the other candidate. The media has been lying to everyone for years. They could tell me the sky is blue and I would need to see it myself. While I can't deny that he is most likely a narcissist, I also don't think he will destroy our country as everyone claims. He didn't the last time he was in office. Just my thoughts on it
@mytwistedsoul I agree...Trump's reputation as as much due to legacy news media being against him as to his own behavior. The other thing is, he has the same issue Biden had when he was running in 2020: age. Trump is older now than Biden was back then, & it's starting to show...
Harris may be a machine politician, but she's 59 & shows no signs of senility. That alone puts her in my favor, though I still have to hold my nose.
@Helgafy - Are you aware that no headshrinker can properly diagnose someone without a formal psychiatric examination of that person?... Seems like a lot of people have either forgotten that fact or never learned it to begin with, in these days of armchair-diagnosis-as-ad-hominem.
@slowdecline48 I will agree with you on his age and while She might be younger I'm still a no for her. I do think that Vance makes a good impact as opposed to her running mate which I will refrain from calling him by his nickname. Neither of them other than their age brings anything to the table for me. She has flip-flopped on too many things for me to consider her trust worthy. Not to mention the whole time she's been misleading everyone on Biden's decline.
If by "everyone" you mean people who vote Democrat &/or the more tribal-minded Blue state liberals then yes, "everyone" defended Biden until his senility & lack of energy became too obvious to ignore during his debate with Trump. The rest of us knew Biden wasn't up to the demands of governance, including me. The main legacy news media sources (excluding Fox) did much to mislead the voting public about Slow Joe...but they didn't fool those of us who observed him closely.
Like I said, I'm not a fan of Harris but at this point, I don't think Trump is the best choice. As for Harris' flip-flopping, that's standard behavior of politicians in representative democracies. They do it because if they stand against the prevailing winds they'll lose the next election...& the wind shifts, sometimes quickly. Kamala is a cog in the machine, & for most of her career that's all she's ever been.
I'm not a party man at all...from where I stand, the Dems & Repubs are equally venal & corrupt. But they are the duopoly that run the fedgov...no third party candidate has any real chance to get in, & likely never will. You know it; I know it; everyone outside third party bases know it. At this point it's a question of which candidate is less undesirable...& how tightly can you hold your nose while voting for your choice. I'm wondering whether I should vote at all TBH...for the federal election, anyway. I abstained for quite a few years & no, it was not out of "apathy". I had specific reasons to not vote.
@slowdecline48 Tbh I'm an independent. I used to not follow politics that much. But these last couple of years have been horrible and I don't like the direction we're headed
@slowdecline48
Thank you, thank you, thank you friend. (I call you "friend" because I think to call you "slow" is so slow!) Headshrinker - lol! Well - if he had given his test for his health to the public as Camela has done - maybe his diagnose would be written there. (I was thinking yesterday - why is Trump occupied with Hitler - over here in Germany - and then I remember - his father og grandfather came from Germany so they have told him of that history).
@mytwistedsoul
Thank you so much twist for telling your thoughts. Your opinion is very important.
