I took a senior visiting family member to Xmas mass some years back. It was a smaller rural Catholic church. I was surprised to see screens roll down from the ceiling and Emperor Palpatine err the last Pope come on pitching how the church was changing and its time to come for regular visits.
I think it was mostly aimed at the holiday only crowd which was pretty small. There was also whispering about the Indian Priest doing Mass that day.
Let's just say I was glad to get out of there despite the technology they were using. I think they might have better luck showing football on the big screens though...
It's been great for people like me that go off grid at times for travel and their efforts in the solar areas has seen dramatic drops in the cost of solar panels for many. They are possibly at their lowest prices ever now due to their investment in these areas.
This is not say they are perfect and everything is great but it is kind of disturbing with all of their issues (and some would say there are many) they get that living in the 1600's with coal mining isn't perhaps the best practices for everyone on a massive scale.
Many of our western local governments fight against alternative sources and even stop projects as they have guzzled the oil, gas, and coal are the only ways to go Kool-Aid. It's great for jobs and business they say.
Damn to be able to play silent games in church when I was younger would have been a lifesaver.
I wonder if they have gone digital with the hymn books and the Bible we should follow along with by now? If so it would be at least easier to read your Kindle uncover...
Insane to think of the money they are making if they can absorb fines in the Billions, then the CEO stepping down taking on a personal fine of 50 million.
Also insane if they can't take on these fines. What happens to the money in accounts then?
In many ways the ads from the Minority Report and the Black Mirror episode where you need to earn credits to not see the ads seems closer than we think.
As I've become older I've found I enjoy the peace and quiet of the great outdoors. However I'm finding I'm alone as others bring their noisy generators to power the very things that can bring them more ads there too. In some ways it seems pretty bizarre to me.
And to think of the problems from the war dear old dad or mom was dealing with.
I watched a Yogi Berra documentary the other day. This fellow was pretty happy go lucky. It touched on his time during the war in the navy and his role of fishing out swollen dead bodies from after the D-day landings.
My first thought was my western 80s equivalent or today's avocado toast generations have no idea about those horrors first hand and they needed to carry on their lives without the mental health support many today are afforded. They were probably affected in cases by their WW1 effected family members too.
Can you imagine if we were to take off the rose colored glasses what we would really see with adult eyes looking back?
All these people dealing with such massive losses of loved ones and family members etc. Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, etc. Then between those 2 wars the Depression.
In that sense I can see why it was so important to be thankful for what's left and what you have.
I just hope we all don't need to revisit the reasons why those times were good in that sense.
A part of me finds it strange when it comes to the holidays how we are in many ways time warping back to idealized 40s or 50s Christmas every year with the decorations, music, and themes. It's nice in ways to enjoy that nostalgia but for many of us that idea was just that an idea of what things were going to be like.
For many it was a grittier experience. Just think about those that dare to mention politics let alone some old family trauma. I get why some are like nah let's stay home. In a lot of ways that how it really was when things were "great" back then with the alcoholism and deadbeat family members.
In the end it's a testament to what a great job Coke did with those Christmas ads years ago now.
It's amazing how quickly these developments are occurring. My daily news podcasts are only behind a day and yet they seem so out of date as a result at the pace of these changes.
At the end of the day do we really know what prompted this ouster yet?
I was lucky to find another doctor after my family GP of decades retired at 85. He wasn't allowed to keep practicing after 85. He moved to an advisory role in another clinic giving up his practice. He wasn't able to find someone to buy his single practitioner clinic. The real estate costs and the many services where patients are passed around is the new model listed as reasons he couldn't sell it. I suspect since everything was still in paper records didn't help.
The new GP is one of many doctors in the same clinic. He does mostly phone calls with some in person visits but usually it's phones calls first and it's 7 - 20 days before one can get an appointment. Anything urgent will need to be a drop in clinic which are full most of the time, or the ER worse case.
I have to wonder how much minor time sensitive cases are burdening the system overall. I ended up at a drop in clinic as the last appointment this summer due to an issue with bandages after a surgery. If this had failed it was the ER next for me as there was no way the GP could fit me within a week unlike the old days with my GP. Thankfully a adjustment to my bandages and cream solved my infection but it was still minor.
I don't think there's a easy fix coming soon anytime...
I took a senior visiting family member to Xmas mass some years back. It was a smaller rural Catholic church. I was surprised to see screens roll down from the ceiling and Emperor Palpatine err the last Pope come on pitching how the church was changing and its time to come for regular visits.
I think it was mostly aimed at the holiday only crowd which was pretty small. There was also whispering about the Indian Priest doing Mass that day.
Let's just say I was glad to get out of there despite the technology they were using. I think they might have better luck showing football on the big screens though...