HOW WAS YOUR DAY

[zaratustra]

It's literally "Aslan/Jesus, why don't we help the people who are dying horribly?"

"They'll be okay, they'll go to heaven!"

Really? You response to suffering and death is "let them suffer and die"?

That is one toxic fucking worldview, Lewis.

I dunno, I spent at least a few years thinking that was the exact reason God doesn't give a fuck about what happens on earth.

[Brantly B.]

If God is really grading you based on your life performance then of course it's going to be challenging.

I feel like things would be a lot less stressful though if he told us up front that he's grading on a curve.

"They'll be okay, they'll go to heaven!"

Thing is The Last Battle takes it a logical step further and implies that being dead is super-cool and being alive is for boring losers, and don't you wish you were dead like us? I always felt that was odd about my religion; it tries so hard to give us the impression that death is actually the best thing that's ever going to happen to us and then throws in that "BUT DON'T COMMIT SUICIDE" clause as an obligatory no wait, don't actually get dead though. But even as a kid I had these unspoken thoughts like, okay, if I really want to die and go to Heaven, but I can't kill myself, does it count if I just stop taking my asthma meds?

...oh God does this explain anti-vaccination?

[Mothra]

Yeah like... if religion came from the fear of death, by this point it's gotten so abstracted that they drove past "oh don't worry, death isn't bad" into "death is an incalculable explosion of never-ending joy and fulfillment and validation."

If they didn't slammajam that "don't suicide" rule in there, people would be offing themselves left and right in giddy ritual suicides.

[Büge]

I mean, I hate to bring up your direct competition, but in the Silmarillion, the forces of Heaven directly break their vow to never interfere in order to interfere and save Middle-Earth. They don't tell Earendil "lol everything will be ok, when Morgoth is done torturing everyone to death, they'll end up here and be fine. By the way check out this sick guitar riff I've been working on"

To be fair, they weren't reluctant without reason... the War of Wrath basically sank half the continent.

[Büge]

Interesting how we moved on the subject of the Silmarillion, though, considering the USA basically just elected Ar-Pharazôn.

[Friday]

I for one look forward to Florida sinking

[Thad]

I mean, I hate to bring up your direct competition, but in the Silmarillion, the forces of Heaven directly break their vow to never interfere in order to interfere and save Middle-Earth. They don't tell Earendil "lol everything will be ok, when Morgoth is done torturing everyone to death, they'll end up here and be fine. By the way check out this sick guitar riff I've been working on"

But TBF their interference in the First Age led directly to everything going wrong in the first damn place. They broke the Prime Directive, invited the Elves to come hang out with them, trees got eaten, Silmarils got stolen, it was a bad scene.

And then they overcorrected, decided to leave the Elves and Men to their own devices in the Second Age, and that left an opening for Sauron's rise to power.

The Lord of the Rings is the story of what happened when they figured out how to meddle just the right amount, and send five of their guys out there with memory loss but some vague idea that they were supposed to help somehow, indirectly, without actually facing Sauron head-on.

The final tally is: disappeared, disappeared, evil, bird shit, turns out okay.

Thing is The Last Battle takes it a logical step further and implies that being dead is super-cool and being alive is for boring losers, and don't you wish you were dead like us? I always felt that was odd about my religion; it tries so hard to give us the impression that death is actually the best thing that's ever going to happen to us and then throws in that "BUT DON'T COMMIT SUICIDE" clause as an obligatory no wait, don't actually get dead though.

[Silversong]

Today, I shook hands with Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. I spent 10 hours executing a civil rights symposium I've been helping plan for months. People were respectful, conversation fervent, and the Reverend spoke of love and hope.

He ran out on a scheduled meeting to go speak to a bunch of students outside having a rally, and it was awesome.

Then I went to a Jake Shimabukuro concert.

It was a very good, very long, very hard day.

[Mongrel]

After going on no motorbike trips out of town at all this year, I finally did a day trip on literally the very last day of the year this would be feasible (was bright, sunny, dry and 17C... on Nov 19th. Nice September we're having).

After this the temps are dropping to 2C and freezing rain (yuck), rain or snow. That may pass and there will almost certainly be days where I'll be able to do a little riding even in December within the city, but by then it'll definitely be too cold to do day daylong trips out of town.

(Latest I've ridden is Christmas or Boxing day, I think... could have ridden in January/February even a couple times, since my limit is 4-5C and dry and those days happen now and again, but by then I've usually pulled the battery and am too lazy to bother putting it back just to ride around for two hours on salt-heavy rods just to say I'd done it. )

[Thad]

Did 20 minutes or so on the elliptical this morning (after not having tried it for several weeks since the BP problems). Felt pretty good after. Heart rate was maybe a little higher than usual after I work out, but that may have something to do with my immediately following it with my morning cup of coffee.

Guess the pills are helping; I should schedule a followup and let the doctor know.

Meantime, I'll try and keep doing this every morning, plan on working my way up to what I was doing back when I was unemployed, 45 minutes or so every morning and lifting free weights while I do it. (The 8lb one started to hurt my wrists so I bought a 3lb one. Hey, it's not the weight, it's the reps.) And maybe wait on the coffee until I get to work.

That means the dog doesn't get a walk in the morning, but I think she'll be okay with that. This morning when I opened her doggy door, she walked out and immediately turned around and came back in; didn't even go out to the yard to pee. It was probably about 50 degrees out. Wife, who is from Montana, made fun of dog for thinking 50 degrees is too cold; dog went back to bed.

[Mongrel]

I mentioned my phone making me SO ANGRY but that wasn't even the first thing today.

Some asshole was riding his bike against traffic on the sidewalk at high speed and decided he wanted to run Starr and I down while laughing (looked middle class with a nice bike and wearing a helmet rather than some crackhead on a shitty bike, so I'm not quite sure what his story was).

I don't think his plan worked out when instead of dodging out of his way in terror, I threw the pie I was carrying in his face (grabbing it back at the last possible second, because fuck you I paid for that and still want to eat it).

[François]

That is exactly why I carry at all times a backup pie of inferior quality that I can sacrifice in the name of justice without regret.

[Mongrel]

Actually it's probably lucky that my hands were full of pie, because my immediate instinctive response was just PUNCH THIS FUCKFACE. Which probably would have sent him careening into oncoming traffic. Which, okay, that would have been Bad.

But then, Starr also commented that HER instinct would have been to straight up shove him into traffic and I'm like <3<3<3 THIS IS WHY I MARRIED YOU <3<3<3.

[Blossom]

Actually it's probably lucky that my hands were full of pie, because my immediate instinctive response was just PUNCH THIS FUCKFACE. Which probably would have sent him careening into oncoming traffic. Which, okay, that would have been Bad.

But then, Starr also commented that HER instinct would have been to straight up shove him into traffic and I'm like <3<3<3 THIS IS WHY I MARRIED YOU <3<3<3.

Yeah those would have been 100% appropriate reactions.

[Mongrel]

EDIT: Actually I am going to post this to the other subforum.

[Yoji]

Hey, Hardly Jr. woke up at a decent hour. 7:30am today instead of... oh, I dunno, 6:00am?

And he's really happy, too! Just clappin' and toddlin' without any prompting. Just happy to be alive with mommy and daddy. It's the best day ever again!

And he stayed happy as we washed and got dressed. Not even a fight to get him in a new shirt!

All things considered, this is a pretty good morning and oh my fuck he choked on his breakfast.

[Wheels]

I just got my new custom plates!

[Mongrel]

Big Desktop Deployment Planning Services

[Wheels]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damage_per_second

[Mongrel]