• Color it Purple! Why? Why can't this be the political attitude on both sides of the fucking divide?

It's probably because hate is what wins elections now. And how sad is that? There was a time that politicians would work for all their constituents, we need to get back to that. By electing people like this.

   
• Feeling Off! This is wild. The guy is in Seattle, but what he's talking about can apply to a lot of places...

The guy's channel is fantastic. I can't stop watching it. This video from last night has insights that's tough to wrap your head around...

How this guy doesn't have his own television show on HBO is beyond me.

   
• How are the kids? I laughed for five solid minutes watching this...

Didn't help that this guy was dying while reading it.

   
• Rhapsodic! I love stuff like this (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...

I wish Freddie were alive to see this.

   
• Thunderstruck! This is absolutely amazing. I love AC/DC, and this is a flawless tribute...

Give this young woman a beer!

   
• Racism: Alive & Well! Good GOD I'm sick and fucking tired of stupid...

Lord what a fucking racist piece of shit. And speaking of a fucking racist piece of shit...

No science? WE WRITE SCIENCE IN ARABIC NUMERALS, YOU STUPID FUCKING RACIST ASSHOLE! And what about algebra? Algebra comes from the "al-jabr" in the book title Al-Kitāb al-mukhtaṣar fī ḥisāb al-jabr wal-muqābalah by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi... THE FATHER OF ALGEBRA! No literature? How the fuck could even the stupidest person not know of One Thousand and One Nights? It's a hugely famous collection of folktales, to which Sinbad the Sailor was added. How hasn't his ignorant ass heard of that one? And works from Arab authors are being widely translated into other languages... INCLUDING ENGLISH. Not that I expect this mutherfucker to read a fucking book. And notice that the turd never mentioned architecture. Probably because even his worm-addled brain knows that some of the most stunning architecture in the world comes from Arab origins. Or art, of which there is a fuck-ton of incredible works from the Arab world. Good God. — The asshole's got money... pick up a fucking passport and take a look at the world, dumbass.

THESE are the people representing this country? I just want it all to go the fuck away. What in the hell have we become?

   
• NEWSFLASH: Richard Norton, actor and martial artist, died after peptides triggered heart attack, coroner says. Good thing our Health Secretary is on the case: RFK Jr. eases access to unproven peptides despite opposition from FDA scientists. Jesus what a fucking stupid piece of shit. Anybody taking medical advice from the dumbass deserves what they get. Unfortunately, that means the United States of America, where he's inexplicably been put in charge of something he doesn't know jack-shit about.

   
Now back to laying on the couch with intestinal distress.

   
• Snek! I meant to post this on Caturday, but forgot. This is SO Jake with his stuffed lion toy, Mufasa. He took that thing everywhere for years. I would find Mufasa in his food dish, the water dish, and even the litter box...

Gotta make sure your best friend is getting enough to eat when they're looking a little thin.

   
• Oh Deer! I don't have a snek friend, I've got a deer friend now...

Such a pretty girl.

   
• U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! So proud...

In an age that science is attacked, education is ridiculed, and intelligence is mocked, this is where we are now. How sad.

   
• BUSINESS! Exaggerated. But still conceptually true...

Business is war, after all.

   
• Middlemen! It's insane. It's just insane...

The near-constant mantra from politicians continues to be that the USA has the best health care in the world. But every conceivable metric has shown that's not true. The truth is that it's the best if you can afford it! Studies show that Medicare for All would save ONE TRILLION DOLLARS A YEAR AND SAVE 114,000 LIVES ANNUALLY! But we continue to pay "health" insurance companies to provide worse care for more dollars. Disgusting.

   
• UnJournalistic! Getting facts completely wrong on your news story is one thing... but editing it so that the original wording is preserved so as to obscure the fact that you got it wrong? Shitty...

The edit should have eliminated the word "released" completely, as NOBODY TALKS THAT WAY. "Bail has been set at $1 million" is the only edit which takes responsibility for your misinformation. But because they went the dipshit route, now we've got a bunch of "READ IT AGAIN!" assholes in the comments chiding people who commented on the original headline. I am so sick of this shit I could vomit. If you don't have journalistic integrity, don't be a journalist.

   
And now back to preparing my home for Fall.

It was a rough night. According to my Apple Watch I only got 4-1/2 hours of sleep. I think I kept touching my eye or rolling on it which woke me up.

And when my alarm went off this morning, I was in quite a lot of pain. It feels like I've been punched in the eye. Except I wasn't. My doctor had to press on my eye hard enough to squeeze the liquid out from under my first surgery so he could try and better contain the tear on my retina so it doesn't spread and detach. A half hour of somebody poking your eye out don't feel great once the anesthesia they shoot into it wears off.

My cats must have sensed something was wrong, because I found them next to me whenever I woke up...

   
BUT THAT WASN'T ALL THE PAIN I GOT THIS MORNING!

This was waiting for me in my email in-box...

This is “health insurance” in America.

One health problem has me hitting 75% of my full-price, high deductible... and this doesn’t even include my much more intensive second surgery yet.

The cost for all this will be thousands upon thousands of dollars. It will easily wipe out my health savings account and likely wipe out my regular savings as well. And this is for one eye. Can you imagine if it were something far worse?

I’m just thankful that I have savings to draw from. And, believe it or not, I consider myself lucky to have insurance... because I might not have even been able to afford to go to the doctor in the first place if I didn’t.

Americans are paying thousands upon thousands of dollars for insurance which results in thousands upon thousands of dollars in medical bills.

This is fucking insanity.

Yet politicians who were bought by the insurance lobby tell us we have the best health care in the world.

Why aren’t Americans sick of this fucking scam yet?

I may be in desperate need of sleep, but don't you fear about your weekly smattering of bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Seek Shelter! This squirrel got lucky during a storm...

Adorable. But animals usually are.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Young Wisconsin man dies from asthma attack after price of inhaler skyrocketed nearly $500. BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE WORLD, PEOPLE!

   
• Fuzzy & Buttered! Am I the only one who freaks out over how sage is fuzzy before you cook it? Delicious delicious sage...

Can't beat it on butternut squash with browned butter poured over the top! Except now my home is going to smell like buttered popcorn for the next two days.

   
• Eight! Eight Dollar Foot Long! Subway is advertising their new "Sub Club" where you buy three foot-longs and get the fourth for free. So I go to the app to find out how much they’ve increased the prices to cover this promotion. A Veggie Delight is $10.69 now. With a free fourth sub, the price ends up being $8.00. This is for a veggie sandwich with extra cheese (because their cheese is whisper thin now, and they stopped putting double cheese on veggie subs years ago). A bun, cheese, and veggies is $8.00... but not now... eventually. — Remember $5.00 foot-longs, which you could get with pricey meat options if you wanted? I wonder how much those subs cost now? This kind of "deal" is such bullshit. I’d rather eat at a place that just gives me a fair price at the start rather than holding my money hostage until I buy enough to get a fourth sub. Yeah, I know a lot of places do this to encourage repeat visits, but $10.69? My burger meal card has initial lower prices which earns you a free meal after ten. That seems a smarter deal because you don’t face sticker shock every time you eat there. $10.69... for a cheese sandwich? Really?

   
• Techflation! This bullshit is getting out of hand...

And here it is in action...

I'd like to know how asshole corporations are justifying this. Assuming they feel the need to. It's all monopolies and collusion from here on out. We've got a government that doesn't give a fuck. On the contrary, the government is being paid to look the other way.

   
• Apple Macintosh Hot Take: It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons. And indeed it is very hard, because it's fucking sloppy. But that's Apple now... fucking sloppy.

   
• Cinematically Real! This is the video that nails it. This is why the Avatar movies work when others abusing technology in film fail...

These movies are pure cinematic spectacle. I cannot wait to see Fire & Ash.

   
And now back to your regularly-scheduled Sunday...

I fell down a rabbit hole of nurse abuse and had a really tough time getting out of it.

It's a raging epedemic that just gets more shocking the deeper you go.

Nurses, who provide a shocking percentage of the care that patients receive, are all too often treated like shit. And many of the stories I've read reveal that a lot of times the abuses happen while they're advocating for the care of people in their charge.

My journey started with this video...

A few thoughts...

• In what fucking universe should this asshole be allowed to practice medicine? If he treats nurses like this, how is he treating his patients?
• This hospital has a lot of explaining to do. I hope they respond appropriately and, if they don't, they deserve to have their reputation absolutely trashed.
• If this doctor hates this country so fucking much, go to another country then, you psychotic bitch. Your feelings about the USA are no excuse to treat this woman like this. Yelling at a nurse in such an unhinged manor is beyond disrespectful... it's abusive and dangerous.
• Fuck off, asshole.

And it doesn't stop there. So many articles and videos about nurses getting verbally assaulted by enraged doctors. And while, sure, some of it is could be a reaction to something, it's still no excuse. Whether because of a god-complex or just the profession attracting a certain personality type, it's mind-boggling to me. I cannot fathom in my wildest imagination my doctor acting like this! And if he ever did, he wouldn't be my doctor.

Until now I thought that nurses getting abused was due to patients... but doctors?!?

I'd like to blame it on stress, but I have a difficult time imagining that nurses have it any easier.

UPDATE: Annnnnnd... she was fired. Why am I not surprised.

There's a lot that I could say about current events.

But I think that this TikTok from Pastor Paul Drees is the closest to how I am feeling about things, so it's probably best that I just go with it instead of trying to dance around what I'd like to say... what I should probably say... or something I might immediately regret if I say...

"Health care" in these United States is utterly fucking horrendous.

You've got an entire industry whose entire point is to take money out of the system. It serves absolutely no other purpose.

If all the money that the American people paid into "health" insurance only for insurance companies to FUCK THEM OVER was instead put into actual health care, we'd be paying less for far, far more.

I had to go nearly three fucking weeks without medication prescribed by my doctor because my "health" insurance company wouldn't fill it without "prior approval." And it's like... my doctor says that I require it. That's all the fucking approval you fucking need. But no. They had to deny the prescription. Then my doctor had to send in paperwork asking for approval. Then the insurance company had to process shit while I waited. Then I'm guessing the CEO of the insurance company had to fly to St. Barts on their private jet for a week to consider if, in fact, they would allow me to have what my doctor says I need. THEN they decided to allow the prescription to be filled.

Two days after my medication was finally in my hands, I got a letter telling me how "pleased" my "health" insurance company was to approve my prescription request.

For the love of God I don't understand how Americans have been continuously conned into thinking that this is the way health care should work. Forget one greedy fuck at a fucking insurance company... the entire country should be in goddamn flames over this bullshit.

And perhaps one day it will be.

I'm buried in work today, but fear you not... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Overrated Olympians! Michael Phelps the greatest Olypian of all time? Eh. Here's something to keep in mind as you're watching the Olympic Games...

He's not wrong.

   
• Whoa! I have wondered for years and years why Hallmark never made a movie from a man's point of view. I understand their audience is mostly women, but you'd think that they would love seeing things from the opposite viewpoint! They kinda got onboard with Three Wise Men and a Baby, which must have been a success. Because Hallmark decided to not recycle the same stuff for the millionth time and give us a trio of films that switch things up...

I don't get Hallmark Channel any more, but I will be finding a wy to buy it to watch these films because this looks really good, by Hallmark standards... maybe by any standards! Nice!

   
• ARTICLE: I have aphantasia: my mind's eye is permanently closed! Every time I read a new article about somebody finding out they have aphantasia, I have a flashback because I went through the exact same thing. It was in my mid-30's. I was hanging out with some fellow graphics people after a job in Seattle. Somebody was describing what they wanted to do for the next project and said "I'm having a tough time picturing it though." Then somebody else piped up and said "I have aphantasia... so I can't picture anything!" And I sat there like "What's aphantasia?" And was then told that most people when they close their eyes can LITERALLY visualize stuff when they concentrate on picturing it. I, on the other hand, only see blackness. When I am "picturing" something in my head, I'm not actually seeing anything... I'm just describing to myself what I know the things look like. And, yes, it is very bizarre to me how it works for others. Because it would be so cool to picture stuff literally instead of figuratively when I close my eyes to see something. I would love to close my eyes and be able to look at Von Gogh's Starry Night... but instead I see nothing but black and I have to describe it to myself based on what I remember.

   
• Olypian! I've already mentioned how I'm not an Olympics guy... I absolutely love stories like this...

If you don't care about coming in last... have money to burn to chase qualifying competitions around the world... and your only goal is to be an Olympian? There you go! This is so great.

   
• Tabasco Hot! I've been re-watching all the James Bond movies for the hundredth and noticed something odd...

I wonder who it is involved with James Bond who loves Tabasco? Nick Nack brings it to Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun and Stromberg has it on the table in The Spy Who Loved Me. It's kinda cool that Bond villains love Tabasco so much, they have it flown in to wherever they are!

   
• Country-fied! I've never been a Country music fan and, when I listen to it, it's usually the classic stuff. But ever since Kacey Musgraves's album Golden Hour was my second-favorite album of 2018, and Sam Hunts album Southside made my list in 2020, I've been listening to the Contemporary Country more and more. So much so that YouTube has started suggesting Country artists thanks to my playlists on YouTube Music. This morning I got recommended the song Laid Back by Chris Housman, an artist I never heard of before. Turns out he a part of the ever-expanding Gay Country genre that has been cranking out some amazing music...

It's such a good song. Nice that we're getting such a diverse pool of artists across all genres of music. Gatekeeping is so last week.

   
• Fuck. This. Shit. Cut out the fucking middle man. Medicare for All. Do you know how much health care could be had for 70 FUCKING BILLION DOLLARS... which doesn't even count the operating costs of these shitty fucking insurance companies, which are not designed to provide good care... but to maximize profits. And look how successful they are at that...

Health care in this country is so fucking broken and will remain broken so long as insurance companies are allowed to own our politicians.

   
And now I gotta get back to work. I have fucking medical bills to pay for.

I was at the hospital today, and I have thoughts.

I love how Americans are all brainwashed with stupid shit like "sOcIALiZEd mEdiCiNE is THE WOrSt becaUSE You haVE tO wAIT sO long FOR aN APpoinTMeNt!"

And then the doctor tells me "You need to have this done so we can have an idea what we're dealing with. Here's the number you call for an appointment." And then... "The soonest appointment is the second week of October." So I'm like "Um... pretty sure my doctor is needing this to see what's wrong with me, is there any way to get me in sooner?" And the answer is... "Not unless you're admitted to the ER. October is only available because there's a cancelation. Usually this would be into December."

It's sad that most 'Muricans are such stupid fucks that they believe politicians when they talk shit about Medicare for All, because most of them are too fucking ignorant to understand that the politicians are bought and paid for by the insurance companies to say that.

And all I can do is think "Well... that's how our political system works, and people don't seem to give a shit about fixing it, so... here we are." And it's even true here in Washington State where our politicians are as fucking deep in payola as any of them.

But in a Blue way!

Jesus. I don't know what it's going to take before Americans get sick of paying the highest possible price for our shitty fucking health care, but this is who we are, thanks to the powerful insurance lobby.

Greetings at 3:45am on Thursday morning!

I have kidney stones!

I figured it out because I've been screaming in pain for the past 6 hours. Still hurting, but I really, really hope the worst of it is finally over, because... holy crap is this unreal. I used to get them regularly. Like clockwork once a year. But then they mysteriously stopped, and I haven't had one since 2017. Probably because I started drinking lemonade regularly? No idea why they're back.

What's bothering me most... other than the sheer agony, of course... is that I really should have had somebody drive me to the hospital. When the pain is so bad that I can't keep down pain medication, I used to go and have them give me an IV so I can get through it. But now? The whole time I was terrorizing my cats with my yelling, I was thinking "I know it will pass eventually... so can I really afford a hospital visit? No. I will just continue to be in absolute agony to see if can get through this on my own."

What kind of FUCKED UP "health care" system is it where somebody has to be screaming for six hours because a hospital visit is off the table for them? I have no fucking clue what we're even doing. Guess I should be glad it wasn't ten hours. Or days.

We'll find out exactly how bad our "health care" is tomorrow (today?) when I go in for a consultation for yet another eye surgery. Where the entire time I'll be thinking "Do I really need to see that badly?"

There's a meme running through TikTok of people recording their face before and after watching a short animated film on Netflix called If anything happens I love you. It's parents dealing with the aftermath of their daughter dying in a school shooting.

The "before" shots are mostly TikTokers with a normal look on their face... or whatever passes for "normal" now-a-days. The "after" shots are always people in emotional distress... crying and looking helpless. Some people even recorded an occasional reaction during the movie. Bawling their head off halfway through and whatnot. Suffice to say, there's a lot of crying going on in TikTokLand.

And while I thought it's a lovely little feature with excellent animation and really nice music... I felt... nothing.

Well, maybe I felt anger. It's tough not to be angry when there are people so damaged that they would shoot up a school, and we have a society content to let it keep happening. Mental health problems are stigmatized and mortally underfunded in this country, and that just fuels our horrific, upsetting, terrifying, and profoundly sad violence-laden world. Unfortunately, this is exactly what our "normal" is now.

Well... then-now. Not now-now due to school closures during the pandemic. Probably future-now though, because we never learn a damn thing.

And it's because of it that I feel mostly nothing when I see the raging debate over guns reignite once again.

I've gone over my feelings on this subject many times before on this blog. Banning guns is a painfully short stop-gap measure which will ultimately fail. We are this close to being able to 3-D print an assault rifle in the comfort of our own homes. THIS. CLOSE. So unless people are going to be monitored 24-7 to make sure they aren't crafting weapons in their basement to use or sell, we have a serious problem on the horizon whether current weapons are factored in or not.

I don't pretend to know what the answer is, but it doesn't take an Apple Genius to see that diffusing the hate that's escalating every damn day is a good start. Whether that happens by getting our leaders and media to stop being such hate-mongering assholes... working mental health into our education curriculum... destigmatizing mental health problems... making it easier and free to get mental health assistance... providing better monitoring of those with a violent history... stopping creation of conditions which drive people to the kind of desperation which can result violent acts... or one of a hundred other things. Because if we don't start doing something Real Soon Now we're in some deep shit. Or rather we're in deeper shit than we already are.

But hey. We can't even get people to wear a damn mask so the moisture from their breath isn't spreading a potentially lethal virus. How the fuck are we going to get people to give a shit about the mental health of other people or, more importantly, themselves?

Good luck with that.

Because just like people who only believe that COVID exists when their lungs are failing, they're not going to give a shit or think it's a problem... until it happens to them.