apis @ apis @beehaw.org

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2

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366

Joined

2 yr. ago

Does not sound fun. Hope you're well recovered from that now.

Tend to be underweight, and should probably be eating more rather than less, but oh well. Wonky signals all round!

Makes one nervous that this will be yet another scandal in which postmasters & postmistresses end up under attack...

Mm, they went up a bit ago to $2.74, the scandal.

If true, one can conclude I ought to drink more, being able to hold on for at least 48hrs, or that I have some glitch which aids bladder control.

Do not recommend, for general comfort or urinary health, but wetting the bed is a distant concern.

When things are that bad, attending to the urge to pee combined with a strong addiction to tobacco are probably the main things.

As one can postpone the former for several hours and the latter indefinitely, end up coaxing myself to get moving on one with the promise of the other.

Then the cigarette makes me feel much thirstier, so this motivates me to make a cup of tea. Besides, at that point am already up and half way to the kitchen, so it seems less daunting.

Getting low on tobacco is usually a good way to shove myself out of the house, and that means a good wash. Running out completely can be disastrous unless already showered & dressed, however with rollups can usually scramble together a final cigarette from unburnt tobacco in old butts & use thin notepaper if out of rolling papers.

Isn't ideal, but is what it is & whether this stuff gets me to the kitchen or out to the shops, other bits & pieces flow from there which might not otherwise.

In general, pushing myself to perform good habits before things get close to bad seems best - sleep, hydration, nutrition, personal hygiene, exercise, housework, etc., but as they all seem to evaporate as possibilities in the blink of an eye, am unsure that they actually stave off much.

Maybe, when nobody is trying to have a discussion, and everyone is feeling fairly neutral & not preoccupied, you could let your sibling know that the sounds which might be acknowledgement can be misinterpreted as frustration. Acknowledge that you appreciate they might not be frustration, but that you'd like some clues to tell when they are actually frustrated or disinterested in engaging, so the Elders can develop a more useful sense of how to continue. Continuing might involve insistence or boundaries, but could equally involve leaving your sibling be or finding some other approach.

As an aside, you sound very loving & I really admire your determination to find a way to help your family communicate more effectively & with less aggravation. You make your family sound very cool.

They're likely going along with it on the basis that they no longer care about downballot races, or even the main race, intending instead for Trump to seize power & install loyalists by force.

I don't see their plan working, but there'll still be considerable chaos & violence during the attempt.

Made the silly mistake of trying to disabuse myself of the fantasy of rewilding a bit of land with some interlaced permaculture, as am barely functional & very clueless, but wanted to avoid group projects as very introverted & would want to camp overnight at times then perhaps graduate to an extra-basic one-person cob structure.

Found something ideal-seeming isn't nearly as costly as I'd imagined, so the fantasies I'd been trying to shed have gone... stratospheric.

Don't really know anyone, so can't even get together a group to buy it as a trust, but may give a collective I'm aware of a head's up as they're likely to know of other collectives who have yet to find suitable land.

Eat, trip, soil health, building materials & more.

Trying to hope this will galvanise workers in Kentucky into unionising at last, but suspect it won't, and that Republican strategists are primed to roll out all the usual tactics to discourage it.

Down with this milquetoast toleration of the intolerant!

How dystopian.

Not if their policies increase the rate of reproduction, no, or at least, not for some time, because they know that unwanted & unplanned pregnancies increase the desperation of the women, both in the immediate sense & in slashing the numbers of women who can access education > good employment > sufficient societal security to unionise.

They intend to make it ever harder for anyone, but especially women, to obtain sterilisation or other means of reducing risk of pregnancy. This is why they chase reproductive health in general, even things such as IVF.

You already know these people to be dangerous ideologues - I'd caution against underestimating them or their grotesque vision.

They're our structural engineer now, Dave.

The extension of their arguments is firstly that women who wish to avoid the risk of being charged with manslaughter or murder in the wake of a miscarriage must abide by behavioural guidelines which are contrary to science. i.e., to rest indoors anytime she may be pregnant.

The intended effect being to remove women of childbearing age from the workplace & from public life.

Secondly: to severely undermine reproductive healthcare, such that clinics shut, specialists flee, research is stopped & general knowledge regarding reproductive health & access to care plummets.

The overarching ideology being the production of new labourers & to increase desperation, so that Capitalists can avail of ever-cheaper labour in order to lure factories to set up in the US. This is the endgame of "bringing back our jobs" + anti-abortion rhetoric.

Try an image search for "beam connectors" and you should get an idea of the types of things that are available, but a trip to your local builders' merchant & a chat with the people there may be more fruitful.

To attach wood to an I-beam, you could drill holes in the flanges of the beam, then use bolts. There are also fittings that you can slide posts & beams into, with various ways of securing them to the material they hold. If you're not using T-shaped fittings, you could bolt fittings together.

Just sometimes get twingey about upvoting the comments without replying.

Countryside thing was some bus-related confusion (only partly my fault), supposedly on a trip to a suburb, but which saw me on the side of a very dangerous rural road in the mountains in terrible visibility. Determined to hike out over what turned out to be remarkably perilous footing, so had to rethink that and return to where I'd begun.

Eventually got verrry lucky with an option out, but once back on flat terrain indoors, discovered my balance was especially screwed.

Am fairly experienced with wilderness survival without tools or supplies & in very adverse weather, but this basic situation, close to a city & in temperate zone early spring, had me somewhat alarmed.

Squee. This is one amazing turnaround!

Ahhh, the self-doubt that drives people who excel in their areas to continually strive to improve even more... I don't mean to be dismissive, but I think this is a feature of your passion & determination, and these things carry people far further than raw aptitude alone.

Had typed out a longer reply but Memmy ate it. Apologies if both appear at your end.

Let us know how it goes.