All of these make my knees hurt from remembering my years in americorps

I’ll add eastern red cedar - not a bad tree by any means, but we would cut it out from prairies and hike the material to the top of the nearest prairie bluff to burn it safely in 100°+ humid weather.

Looks great!

Appropriately so. Then follow through by never going back.

It’s optimal for your mom!

I mean, yeah - what they said.

And Arkansas needs a tax base, so this family reunion is sponsored by Tinder!

I got me some new devices recently. Researching and adding privacy/security add ons to Firefox was surprisingly enjoyable.

The idea that I have some measure of control over what I experience - and what I give in return - is novel to me.

The -10 or so extensions work well enough. It’s still the internet, but it’s an earlier version. Better than what currently exists.

Sorry, yo. Keep your head up

Your long lost son, perhaps

Absolutely. The divide isn’t going to be solved any time soon.

I respect those who choose the high road, but acting in good faith and expecting reciprocation is what they love to dunk on.

Short chain oil!? At first I thought you were bs’ing about seasoning a pan with gear oil.

That sent me down a novel rabbit hole. Thanks for your input!

It’s fun stuff, right?? I’ve never been able to conceive why the ultra wealthy would want to let the peasants eventually die off.

Perhaps there are currently more peasants than they require? Was Ritchie Rich just waiting until AI drones became advanced enough to serve them properly?

My limited experience with wealthy folk (prob not even the top 15%) is that they like to feel superior by comparison. Some may be intelligent. Most are educated well even if they lack any aptitude.

My best guess is that they lack wisdom or any semblance of awareness that an aristocracy is stagnant. The things that live on our planet have had to struggle and adapt to survive. At some (small and meek) level, they fuel the forces that would oppose them.

It’s not actually fun stuff. I was joshing. I doubt we get to create the United Federation of Planets in the future. I would be ecstatic if that statement was proven wrong.

pre edit: this is just a pointless rant. Your time is precious. Consider skipping it

Please don’t take my statement as arguing against your point (I like where you are coming from).

I don’t even need sources, I rarely believe metrics in the first place because it is so difficult to conceive and even harder to conduct studies at this scale. This isn’t even a possibility in my mind, but:

If everyone that wasn’t in the global top 10% of wealth went full Fremen, would the problem truly continue to exist? I doubt it because much of the much industry owned by our increasingly indulgent hoarders wouldn’t be necessary. There wouldn’t be regular folks to make or buy the product. We’d be hiding under the sand in a cave while drinking our own pee.

I’m not knocking it - I haven’t tried it. All at once, anyways.

The gluttonous upper crust would still be jetting to the poles and burning tires for light, but I feel like that would be a much smaller burden on our planet’s ability to support life as we’ve known it than industry on a massive global scale.

I don’t know what my point is exactly. I don’t think I believe we’ll find a workable solution without a cataclysm. Let’s go with: selfish assholes are gonna earn their title every time. Regular folks shouldn’t be told that their combined efforts won’t put a dent in the problem. The ultra rich process nature into poison in order to gain more wealth and power over their peasants. Weakening public education and access to healthcare helps them sell their low quality, single use poisonous trinkets. Having a bunch of money isn’t useful if there aren’t a lot of folks that have little or even less money. Power, money, knowledge - resource - however you want to frame it.

But then the rich could just overpopulate and use their least favorite offspring as peasants…

Ugh. I should just delete this comment as I don’t know what my central statement is. I am certainly not disagreeing. Maybe its that we shouldnt accept futility even though our efforts may truly be futile. To encourage integrity and contentment among our masses. It’s very possible for the inhabitants to overcome our downward trend - but if we end up failing, there is still no reason we should accept defeat and be the poor, uneducated, meager servants they see us as.

Fuck the powers that don’t respect every life equally. Even if resistance isn’t effective, I’d rather suffer than accept a darker future. (I won’t have kids. Easy for me to say)

Ugh. Sorry if anyone reads this. I just needed to vent I guess. Thanks for being interested and making the post and conversation. Be well all

Flex that chaotic good!

Shit. Now I can’t recall if I double space or not. I’m sure I double spaced back when I studied things just for page length.

How long has this been going on?

Lol, it took me a minute to realize I am currently providing myself with the data I wanted. And it looks like my (semi)professional emails are about 50/50, depending if I’m responding.

Is it commonplace to single space after a full stop these days? Thanks!!

Also: that grandpa and his collection are awesome! It’s inspiring - not that I’d travel my country (U.S.) to the same extent. Perhaps my state, but there isn’t a huge amount of variation, nor do I have the desire to visit some of the areas.

Yeah, I tend to think the first one to posit a statement should also be the first to supply evidence

I hope they keep learning it. There are way too many streaming services as is. I’m ok with one or two, but I’m not opposed to sailing the high seas.

They kicked it off paramount for whatever reason. I just watched it and it’s good!

Too much or too little?

Meh, I still kinda regret having voted for her

I’d like that. If we’re to thrive, folk will have to learn to accept one another eventually