Random Thoughts, December 2024

I'm still going Facebook Lite, though it's been refined somewhat: I took it off my phone but I still have it on my computer. This means that when it's not a workday I'm on a lot more often, but I'm also still curating my feed. I follow a lot fewer public figures than before because I can't tolerate all the hate-follower types. I still get plenty of the jerks who think that Trek/comics/Who/insert-fandom is "suddenly woke" and who assume their opinion is law, but it's a lot easier to ignore those when you're no longer also dealing with the haters on every. single. post.

Regarding the UHC CEO who was killed. Mostly the theories I see are that a) it was a professional hit or b) the shooter lost someone important to them because of denial of benefits. I find it hard to care, in a schadenfreude sort of way. I know some people who are absolutely delighted, but I am not. EDIT, because I was not clear: This is in part because I feel bad for his family and I'm kind of appalled that it has come to this. The other part is because I simply don't have that much energy to spare, especially during Hibernation Season. The most interesting theory I have heard is that the shooter himself is terminal due to denied claims and therefore has nothing to lose. I prefer this sort of thing in episodes of Leverage, myself.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Lizzy and I drove/ferried over to Whidbey Island to meet my dad and stepmom for brunch and a holiday concert. The brunch was excellent, and the concert was fun, especially during the singalong portions. The fact that I know the cello part and the alto voice part of the Hallelujah Chorus makes for a bit of confusion though. After the concert, as we were halfway up Whidbey Island anyway, the plan was to drive north and take the bridge across to see the holiday light display at the Tulalip Casino Resort. My GPS desperately wanted us not to do this (because of a four-minute slowdown on I-5 southbound) and kept routing us down to the ferry dock in the south end, but in the end, I prevailed.

A very small sample of
holiday lights at Tulalip

We found out toward the end of that drive that the slowdown was actually because of the holiday lights; a lot of them can be seen from the freeway. Silly GPS. We had fun; it was a very nice day/evening. I'm a little sore, in a second-day-of-ski-season way, but I walked more than three miles. The last time I did that was actually at the SakuraCon that triggered my torn meniscus, so I feel pretty good about my improvement there. I'm sure my physical therapist will be pleased!

I forgot how big Whidbey Island is!

Abby should be home for the holidays late this week, so that will be nice. We will have to wait until after her birthday though. 😞  But everything is ready!

The Aftermath of the 2024 US Election, and Some Personal Changes

A picture of the Morton Salt Girl, with the caption, "Sometimes I'm just a salty bitch."

I'm sure that most of my regular readers are unsurprised by this, but I am deeply, deeply disappointed in some of - many of - my countrypeople. I mean, some of it is not surprising; I don't expect compassion for others or equitable treatment for those unlike them from the kinds of people who decry other folks for... well, for existing. Those sorts of people don't get much understanding from me; at most, I feel sad for their children and pity (which for me is a close cousin of contempt) for them.

The people I'm disappointed in come in two flavors: the ones whom I have actually witnessed being reasonable human beings/good parents/basically kind people... but who still voted for TFG and some of whom are now gloating loudly and relentlessly. That's the first kind, and I honestly don't care if they voted that way because they're afraid of drag queens, think viruses and climate change are hoaxes, or somehow think that the price of gas and groceries is more important than other people. That many of them profess to belong to a faith system that puts Love Everybody above all else is just piss icing on their shit cake.

The other type of voters who have caused me great disappointment are those on the other side, the kind who are so busy chasing after The Perfect Candidate™ that they let that make their voting choices for them. Perfection is the enemy of progress. In this case, perfection is the enemy of not jumping off the slippery slope. I recognize what this kind of voter is trying to do, but it has demonstrably not worked for a couple of decades now, at least here in the US.

In any case, there's my piece, I've said it, and it took me this long - I'm writing this 10 days after Election Day - to get up the energy to do so. In the interest of not burning out entirely (I have children to raise, other children to transport, bills to pay, Lizzy's bead art to market, and gig work to find, never mind holidays to plan for and dopamine to store, given that it's Hibernation Season and there's All That Out There™ to plan ahead for), and have gone low-contact on Facebook. 

For me, this is a big deal; I've been on Facebook for over fifteen years, but I am struggling to cope because by the very nature of social media (especially the big ones), the constant blast of information is relentless. "Like drinking from a fire hose," as they say. So I'm checking in there a couple times a day (deleted it from my phone but I check on my computer), a bit more today as I'm using that time to curate my feed so it's not completely overwhelming, and mostly just lying low. I understand a lot of the very well-meaning Wear This to Show Support trends (which I find performative) and the We Must Mobilize Now trends (for which I am still saving up energy), but at the moment I am emotionally unable to engage in all that. 

I was never much for Twitter, and I canceled my account just as it was renamed to X, so that's not a problem for me. Since my kids are now in their late teens/early twenties, Babycenter is no longer a concern. Google Plus (and before it, Google Wave) is gone, so that's not an issue. Those were my big social media places (if you're not counting Compuserve and America Online), so... I'm mostly out.

My therapist will be proud, although she will be the first to tell me I don't need her approval.

I'm not deleting FB Messenger, though, so if you want to stay in touch, ping me there, and we can work something out.

The Anxiety is Real, Y'all

A Bitmoji cartoon of a woman hiding under bedcovers.
It is labeled CURRENT MOOD

I find The World Today™ to be trying at best.

In fact, I've been actively avoiding the news, regardless of platform, because it's so damn uncomfortable out there. Reading or watching or (god forbid) interacting with any serious social media right now is Not Fun™. I read synopses (rather than listen or watch speeches) by the most politically neutral services I can find, but there's still a lot of anxiety-producing rhetoric. Even some people I like and agree with have been muted for 30 days because I can't deal with the constant onslaught. There are many things that I feel I should be keeping careful track of, but I have to think about my own mental health as well, of course.

And my mental health is... hmm... I'm going with Eggshell Fine™, what with hibernation season (I'm a bear; all I want is salmon, berries, and sleep) and all that out there <waves vaguely at The World Today™> and all. Don't worry; that's why I have a therapist; she keeps me (or assists me in keeping myself) at eggshell fine or better.

When Abby visited home last week, she and I voted (Lizzy's not old enough yet, and we do mail-in ballots in my state). It was interesting because a) this is her first presidential election, and b) as a university student, she is a lot more aware of the issues than she used to be and can discuss them intelligently.

Now that that is out of the way, have a post about Mostly Not That™.

• Lizzy started at a new school today. She's been struggling for years, despite The Best IEP Team on the Planet™, because her learning style is not best served by standard public school methods (neither was mine, but this option wasn't available to me when I was a teen. Oh, it existed, but I don't think I would've qualified). This is the alternative high school in our district, and it's likely to be a much better fit. I have not heard anything about how that's going, but if it was uniformly awful, I'm sure I would've gotten a panicked text from her or an exasperated phone call from the school.
• UPDATE: Liz had a great day at school!

• Abby is performing in a student-directed play this coming weekend, and then I'm allowing Lizzy to spend the weekend with her sister (with the approval of Abby's dormmates, of course). And then on Sunday they get to take the train back here and decorate the house for Christmas before we take Abby back up on Monday (Monday being a holiday when none of us has school).

• After this weekend, the Chez GamersBabes focus will be on school for A & L, completing driving lessons for L, and finding supplementary work for me to do between my morning and afternoon routes/during holiday breaks. I've already got most of my holiday shopping out of the way, my bills are paid, and we've got this.

Onward!

Kids These Days*

*The title is to be read with an accompanying eyeroll and/or sarcastic sigh, at the reader's discretion

A bitmoji rendition of a fair-skinned, brunette-with-blue
ponytailed woman in back and blue-floral print,
looking at a smartphone askance.

I'm finding a number of random irritants here lately, in addition to the usual idiocracy and late-stage capitalism and f*ck the patriarchy suspects. One of these, as I have stated before, is that Grammarly needs to learn that my default writing style is casual and conversational, and now would be a good time to lay off the "want to sound more confident/professional?" suggestions, because the answer is no. No, I do not want to sound more confident, or more professional right now, and please take my word for it the first time I tell you in a given document, okay? Thanks.

There are others, of course.

Millennials are not children, for instance. Even allowing for the latest possible birth years across the variable definitions, these "kids" are now in their mid-to-late twenties. Allowing for the earliest commonly accepted birth years, they're in their early forties. Also, they never asked for the participation trophies; the elder generations thought it would be good for their self-esteem. Stop denigrating them as entitled special snowflakes when they just lived up to the expectations given to them.

The same goes for later generations as well. Is it a little sad that many GenZ folks only know enough cursive to sign their names or can't read an analog clock or need to take "adulting" classes? Sure. Lost skills are often sad, though there was certainly a resurgence in things like baking and crochet during the height of covid. But a) many of those things are not that important right now, and b) again, who neglected to teach them these skills? That's right, the same people who unkindly make fun of them for not knowing what to do with a rotary-dial phone. 

I don't know enough GenAlpha kiddos (and these ones are literally children as I write this in 2024) to have an opinion on their slang and skills and so forth, but I have had more than one tell me I'm the "cool bus driver" because I know about Bluey and superheroes and Minecraft.

But don't worry; it's not only unkindness to younger generations than mine that irritates me. I'm an equal-opportunity leftie cranky GenX lady over here.

I have no patience for the people who support those who not only don't care about them as individuals (that's most politicians, to be honest) but who actively and vocally hate them. How do LGBTQIA+ folks or Mexican-Americans or people whose actual religion says to love everyone support the likes of you-know-who? I do not grok.

Why do some people think that people playing dress-up to read to littles are more dangerous than people who take rapid-fire weapons into public schools? I mean, I can only assume that they are the same folks who think that death from measles is preferable to autism, even though vaccines do not cause autism. These are also the people who talk over disabled people and heaven forbid a neurodivergent or LGBTQIA+ person or wheelchair user speak for themselves. That is evidently too scary. And they think we're the soft and fearful snowflakes.

And I keep seeing horror stories about parents tearing up English homework because they're "teaching about pronouns." As though pronouns haven't existed as long as language has. I have finally learned not to be a grammar notsee in public, but my patience is tried by such statements as "u dont see pronouns in the bibble." 

I'm pretty sure "I am he" contains two pronouns.

In linking older articles, I see that I have definitely touched on these topics before. But they're still out there annoying me, so here we are.

Plague at Chez GamersBabes

A Bitmoji rendition of me, a chubby brunette-with-blue
 woman wearing black and florals, looking tired.
She has an empty battery icon above her head.

Don't worry. We're all sick with Covid-19, but this strain - while apparently extra-contagious - is only miserable rather than hospital-worthy, even for my AARPy, fat, asthmatic self.

But let me start at the beginning, and give you the timeline.

Day One (Tuesday):

Tuesday morning at 4-ish I got up to use the bathroom. When I went back to bed, I got a phone call. From my elder daughter, Abby. The call was coming from inside the house. She felt punk and had done so since about 11PM Monday when she took a covid test, which was negative.

So Lizzy went to school (she masks at school anyway) and Abby and I went to urgent care at 8am (masked). Yep, the clinic's test showed positive. Damn. We got home from the clinic at 10-ish, and by 11am I felt crappy and my temp was climbing (high of 102F) so I also took a home covid test. The results were negative, but I didn't trust it; it could've read negative if it's expired, if there wasn't enough viral load for it to detect yet, or if the test isn't able to detect whatever the current flavor of covid is. So we waited for Lizzy to get home from school to take Liz and me in.

Didn't last; Lizzy was not feeling great and has some medical anxiety on top of that, so she called and asked to come home. Apparently, a student feeling ill is not enough to send them home as the school nurse in charge on Tuesday told Lizzy that "covid is just like the flu or a cold now." Lizzy doesn't want to risk spreading the flu or cold either. When I went to get Lizzy in the nurse's office, the nurse informed me that it "isn't that serious," but asked me to get out of her office when I said I was sick too (Lizzy and I were both masked, KN95, as usual). Sorry, but Lizzy's mental and physical health is more important than you wanting her to go back to class because you think covid "isn't that serious."

{Aside: I'm not a fan of this school year's one-size-fits-all policies or the assertion that cell phones and social media are the One True Cause of Anxiety in Teens... but that's another post.}

So off Lizzy and I went, to the same urgent care clinic, same doctor, same receptionist, but a different nurse. My test came back positive. Lizzy's took a little longer (maybe because she seems to be a couple days behind us on the symptoms), but hers was too. Oh well, at least we don't have to isolate from each other, just from the rest of the world.

Day Two (Wednesday):

Everyone called out sick (Abby's not in school until later this month, but Lizzy and I called out to the appropriate places), so we mostly spent Wednesday making my killer soup and doing Not Much Else.

All: fluctuating temps from 98F to 101F

Me (55, asthmatic): cough, sneezing, headache, wheezing (controlled), low appetite, body aches and chills, irritability, and serious fatigue

Abby (21): headache, scratchy throat, stuffy nose, sniffles, low appetite

Lizzy (17): headache, sneezing, scratchy throat, irritability.

Treatments (doc said we don't need paxlovid because my asthma is well-controlled and we are otherwise low risk): Rest, fluids, Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, my awesome soup, and more rest & fluids.

Day Three (Thursday):

All: fluctuating temps from 98F to 100.6F

Same as above, except that Abby and I feel slightly better (still very tired though), and Lizzy feels somewhat worse. Liz seems to be two days or so behind me, and I'm approximately twelve hours behind Abby. Because of my age and existing conditions (like asthma), the doctor expected me to take longer to fully recover than the kids. 

Given that he didn't know a lot about Lizzy's sensory hellscape where a stuffy nose or a sore throat makes her want to cut off her own head (he's urgent care, not her regular doctor), this was a fair statement on his part. She went to bed before four PM.

Treatments: Rest, fluids, Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, my awesome soup, and more rest & fluids. And rest. And fluids.

Also judiciously applied blue hair dye for me (thanks, Liz) during that portion of the morning when we were all upright at the same time. See? [image of a tired-looking brunette woman with blue streaks in her hair]

Day Four (Friday):

Our knockoff 🌟 💵 💊🏀 drinks were yummy. Lizzy's fever is up; mine and Abby's are down.

Abby is feeling better. Mostly just sniffly.

Jenn feeling ick. Stuffy nose, ouchie sinuses, cough, a little wheezing, fatigue, temperature floating around 99F when not treated. I could live without the back of my throat itching. 

Lizzy is feeling bleargh. Sore throat, sniffling, sweating, headache. Slept for 15+ hours and temp still up hovering on either side of 100 when not treated.

~~~~~~~~~~

I've already had a few (online and random) people saying (smugly), "See?! You still got sick, even with your precious masks and bogus vaccines and all that stuff Big Scary wants you to believe in. Sheeple."

Yes, but we got what feels like the flu (miserable and annoying but not deadly), and I'm not afraid to grocery shop without an arsenal, scared of my kids reading and thinking, or frightened of people in costumes reading to children.

In Name Only

A photo of part of the French opening ceremonies for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. It bears a resemblance to the painting The Last Supper, which apparently has never ever been done before (sarcasm) and is therefore heresy.
The performers say that it is meant to depict a feast of Dionysus (as an homage to a different painting), from Greek mythology, as the Games are of Greek origin. Dionysus (Greek God of Wine, Revelry, and Theater) forbid that they should be creative.

You know the sort of “Christians” who are mortally offended by another country’s opening ceremony for the Olympics, because everything in the whole world should cater to them? There is a lot of overlap with the kind of “Christians” who think banning books and actual people is more important than following the teachings of the One they say they follow.

I’m all for drag performances and while this is not my preferred type, I’m not going to completely lose my mind because other people (especially in other cultures) are doing something I find personally distasteful. Same with the Marie Antoinette sequence. Ick, but also, you do you, France.  It’s not my call. 

It’s not a personal insult, either. It’s not always about you, “Christians.”

Why is “Christian” in quotes here?

Because they’re not acting like actual Christians (no quotes), are supposed to, what with the judging not lest they be judged and all.

Yeah, those people are now known as “CINO” (Christian In Name Only) on my page at least.

Note: these are NOT the people who are actually trying to walk the walk. I know some of them too, and they’re lovely people. What with the judging not and all.