As you are all aware, I have just spent considerable time with my family of origin.
The personalities are diverse, which was brought home to me in many ways during this trip.
I am more similar to my Dad in my way of looking at the world than I am to any of my siblings. Dad is very pragmatic. He waits for as much information as will be revealed about whatever the situation is, then he decides on a course of action. He very much embodies a phrase I heard his father use more than once: Prepare for the worst, but hope for the best.
How about you? Are you an optimist, a pessimist, or something else altogether?
Everything has all either worked out OK or passed with time for me, no matter how bad it seemed at the time. I believe that it’s that way most of the time.
Same sentiment, but I’ll take it a step further. Frequently, what seemed bad at the time has been a bullet dodged in the future in some way, shape or form.
I was very optimistic when I was a young Man, but Our Culture and Society, has saddened me, I see us as Rome, with a quicker Death,
And I love my Country, America! Fuck Yeah!
OTOH, a new Life has me Happy, teaching, and helping my small town like it should be, Living!
I was speaking on a personal level. Writ large, we’re fucked.
I agree, we are doomed, hence the Quick Death statement,
Similar outlook, but I’m still hanging onto a glimmer of hope, for my kids and grandkids. The recent beginnings of a push back against critical race theory have helped, but man are we in a deep hole.
Generally speaking, I practice wishful thinking.
I believe that, to some extent, we make things go the way they go. It is deeper than our obvious consciousness. If we are afraid of something, for instance, we will subconsciously make that thing come about. If we are willfully trying to make things better, we improve the chance of that happening. Wishful thinking is not a bad play. That’s my theory with prayers being answered. People pray for that which they suspect is worthy of such a thing. That means they really want it and they do things unwittingly to bring it about. That’s why, even though I doubt the idea of a god waiting for our prayers and then deeming certain of them worthy, I still respect the idea and encourage it for those who believe.
Laura Ingalls Wilder said, “I believe we make our own luck!” and Rickey Branch said, “Luck is the residue of design.”
What is usually seen as luck is often the result of being prepared to take advantage of a situation.
I know our brains work harder and faster than our consciousness does. I have little doubt that they sometimes override our seeming desires too. The way they fill in the blanks of our perceptions shows that there’s more up there than we all can imagine.
Desires: I had to do some hard thinking after I published my last book. My well is dry. I’m done writing. Now what?
Well, I want to illustrate my books. Always have wanted to. So hell, I have the means to go back to school for something completely frivolous (art). But I don’t see it as frivolous. I see it as the next phase of my artistic career. Maybe something will come of it. Maybe nothing will except my own enjoyment and at this stage of my life, my ambitions are small.
That sounds totally exciting.
That does not sound frivolous in the least.
Exactly. Luck is being ready to take advantage of opportunities.
I just had this discussion with a friend today. Throughout my life I have been reticent, perhaps pathologically so, to take risks. Only in the last 15 years or so have I stopped convincing myself things aren’t worth the effort or doomed to failure. It’s a lot better way to live.
The thing I still suffer from, and this is because of my long experience, is hesitation to take advantage of opportunities. Being able to grab the brass ring is a little different from being a little late, or being unprepared to.
I hear you. That’s painful.
Nobody lays in their deathbed wishing they’d have done less and been more careful.
Well except for people dying because they took a foolish risk, but why quibble?
Well, I don’t think we’re talking Evil Knievel here.
I was thinking more like, took an experimental drug to stave off a relatively benign virus and then clotted all up, or something. J/K.
Nobody lays in their deathbed wishing they’d have done less and been more careful.
True, most of them don’t die in beds.
Maybe a couple of AIDS suffers felt they should have been more careful.
Pinker gets it.
“Rickey Branch”
Strike that, reverse it 😉
DAMMIT I knew that looked wrong, but I was on my phone. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
I definitely agree with this. So many people convince themselves that they will fail, and so they do. Not all failure is internal, but a hell of a lot of it is.
Seek and ye shall find.
That about sums it up.
When snowmobiling we always say “don’t look at the tree, look beside it”
When I was teaching XX to drive, I told her not to look where she doesn’t want to go. Cool car coming at you? Don’t look at it. You’ll hit it.
You can’t fall and miss the ground if you’re staring at it.
target fixation!
That’s good advice.
Carried over from the dead thread:. Sorry about your car Mo but glad everyone walked away. Also, I miss my 5 speed CRX too.
Thanks. I still think I’m 15, stupid, and invincible, so when she got out and said, “Are you okay?” my first instinct is to say, “What, me? Of course. I’m immortal.” But I didn’t say that. I just asked her if she was also because that seemed the thing to do.
That might be more fairly characterized as “positive thinking” – “wishful” implies it will never happen IMO (or extremely unlikely? I could use a ruling).
Positive thinking is a good thing. As is preparation.
Optimistic on a personal level, pessimistic on a global level.
OT from last thread:
https://www.outdoorlimited.com/rifle-ammo/223-remington-ammo/maxxtech-essential-steel-223-rem-ammunition-mtes223-56-grain-full-metal-jacket-case-1000-rounds/
55 cents/round.
Damn, I just bought a pizza oven otherwise would. I will trade you pizza for ammo.
How about a Michigan Blueberry Pie!? some 12 g. PDX rounds?
To get the Blueberries you need a Shotgun with PDX rounds for the Bears, this place is so cool!
Dude! What did you buy?!?
You need to zoom happy hour more often it made an appearance Saturday. The criteria for the purchase was it had to work in a food truck. Planning for when I get fired from my job.
I can’t wait for pictures.
Sums it up for me.
I’m making a better effort in my personal life to be more optimistic. In my work life it pays to be pessimistic. Looking at everything in a negative light helps me expose potential opportunities for misdeeds.
There are three ways to look at life: optimism; pessimism; and cynicism. Only one of those approaches reality.
Cautiously optimistic. Cautimistic.
Optimistically pessimistic
Caustimistic. That’s where my optimism is eroding.
technically, wouldn’t that be “corroding?”
Busted by the pedant police!
Pessimistic. I make plans and preparations based on an optimistic growth outlook but deep down I believe it will all be for naught and that believing that will make it so.
I’m weird.
I’m optimistic about a few things. I see some good things happening here in NH regarding shrinking the government.
I think the country is fucked on the other hand. A national divorce will be ugly but I think it is inevitable at this point.
Speaking of family, when I think about the amount of Covid Craziness in my family, I wonder how it is I’m related to them.
I consider myself a lot like your Dad. I am both an optimist and a pessimist. I talk a lot about pessimism but I understand the power of positive thinking and usually try to inspire it in people I work and live with. I understand that not everything goes well or ends happily, but I do and encourage others to do what is necessary to make things work for the better, while being prepared for the worst.
To live otherwise is to either be downcast forever, or unreasonably upbeat. I guess I’m fairly neutral.
The way I see other people is that they usually try to do the best, but fail sometimes, and few people are truly evil. Some are dangerously incompetent or misguided, so much that they can harm the others around them, or over whom they have some level of influence. Those people need to be avoided if possible, and resisted if necessary.
I’m pretty neutral. I usually try to think of the worst that could happen, figure out how I would deal with it, and move towards what I want to happen.
I’m also always waiting for the other shoe to drop and everything to go pear shaped, to mix a bunch of metaphors.
I had to have a stern discussion with myself over that. “Bad things happening are not items on a to-do list to be crossed off.” Once I internalized that a little bit, life/attitude got better.
I have to remind my wife to “stop disasterizing” – you can envision the worst outcome but that doesn’t make it a likely outcome.
In my personal life, I’m optimistic. Regarding the country, I’m pessimistic.
I’m a government auditor. I think I’m required to be a pessimist.
Or am I a good auditor because I am a pessimist?
So, you’re from the government and you’re…
Exactly…
Scary!
OT: sit down for this. (Scroll to the bottom.)
I obviously didn’t read the source material (or I would have linked to it) so I can’t say if or how this eminently laudable opinion turns to shit in the end or not.
It turns into bitching about racist Trump supporters halfway through. It was a pretty good critique of modern minimalist architecture until then.
LOL thanks for taking one for the team.
I went to the Getty with some friends about 10 years ago, one of whom is an art teacher. He was not pleased when I told him evrything after we hit modern sucked balls. I sympathize with this basic sentiment. Partly it’s automation. Designers now flip the angle and choose the ratio for the part/item to be rendered in. Engineers have a goal and the designers must comply with that. Result? Ugly assed shit.
Further, finite analysis lets them build things to exactly make their chosen lifespan. If the consumer is lucky. Things used to be overbuilt, now that’s a no-no.
Heh, my house (1947) is incredibly over built. Steel beams. Really.
I dunno about engineering but in architecture the biggest problem IMHO is the postmodernism which turns everything to shit. In design it often means being “transgressive” which usually translates to “ugly”, even “forbidding”.
If postmodernism is the same as brutalism then I couldn’t agree more.
I believe brutalism is a branch of postmodernism.
Pessimist, seen to much stupid shit.
But I am not giving up fighting.
I seen plenty. It’s all behind me now. And, I had fun anyways.
I was told I was an extremely happy kid and we were extremely poor trailer trash with nothing but it did not matter because I was fed by my parents and got a new bike a couple times and that made me an optimistic kid. Then I grew up and got through the delusional years of everything is great because PARTY and realized I was living in a nation ran by think tanks working for the military industrial complex directing our money to some new and or existing war regardless what idiotic team is in the white house and the only team in said situation that actually makes ground on their goals is the one that wants full on socialism/communism and ya, I guess I am a bit pessimistic. Throw in the last year and I have exponential pessimism. We. Are. Fucked.
Beer will always taste good, so there’s that.
Finally, a post I endorse. We are fucked. Yeah, I am fine personally and will do my damndest to set-up my off-spring, but pessimistic regardomg the future.
^^This^^
I’m kind of pissed off, because this topic has made me realize that I’m an optimist. I wanted be more surly, dammit!
Welcome to being pissed off, blackjack!
Our motto is we’re not happy when we’re happy!
The low-carb snacks and coffee are over there, next to the semi-automatic-rifle vending machines.
Hedonist.
8======D (i)
You write purty.
One of the biggest compliments someone gave me at work a couple of days ago was how incredibly optimistic I can be even when it’s stressful and chaotic.
A little background: Our company was bought out by a British marketing firm last Fall and these past couple of months, they’ve really came in and taken over as expected. Well they hired this new VP of Finance and she’s incredibly smart but a terrible manager. Since she started, this month alone, we have seen the departure of 2 managers and three seniors, and a staff. My team has basically been decimated because they do not want to work with this woman.
It sucks balls and been working late nights to close the books but I was speaking with one of my coworkers around 8:30 last night and he noted how cheery and positive I’ve been despite the massive upheaval. I’m not trying to be this guy full of sunshine, but what the fuck is the point of me being depressed and pissing about everything that is going wrong?
I feel the same way, in a way. I’m working on a project to build and start up a new manufacturing line that was initiated by our commercial group with very little technical involvement until they got the go ahead to start spending money. Then they dragged us engineers in and gave us an impossible time line and budget. We picked up the slack very quickly, and outperformed expectations, because that’s what we do, and why bitch about it? Just get it done. Now, we’re nearly ready to start initial production and our sales staff are bungling some last minute commercial issues that may delay or end the project. We did our job, so what else should we do? Even if it’s all for naught, we got paid, got the credit for pulling a rabbit out the hat, and the commercial folks might be getting their asses handed to them anyway.
I got that from the boss-boss at work a few weeks ago and was kind of speechless. I think I even blurted out, “Do you even know me?!”
I think especially my generation are always kind of pissy and complaining so when they see someone who doesn’t act like that and become stoic in the face of chaos, they see that shit as being cheery and positive.
I do suspect that I am considerably older than him. (I’ve never seen him in person.)
Nihilist, Nothing is worth drying for! Nothing last forever!! Nothing! Nothing!! Nothing!!!
Dude, you can walk around soaked to the skin if you want, but I like being dry.
Famous last words of Kevin Costner while making Waterworld!
[small voice] I liked that movie. [/small voice]
You go to your room. You know what you did.
Nit-picking women, Yusef was right!
I often talk about how lucky I am but I’m confused between being an opportunist that takes advantage of different situations or reaping the benefits of someone else’s work.
As ‘sloper mentioned growing up poor was luck but having parents that encouraged thrift and hard work was a bonus. I have mentioned that my first adult job ended in a strike that encouraged me to go to the army. I accidentally was assigned (luck?) to an electronic maintenance unit though I was a supply clerk. I found electronics to be a good niche with good assignment and promotions (luck?) and went to several schools.
As bad as the VN War was, for me personally it was another opportunity. As with some folks my personal life was full of mistakes but I recognized that all were my own fault and responsibility. In year 2000 -2002 I was terribly depressed, with what I took to be a personal crisis. I knew the problem, I knew the solution and finally took the rational approach and resolved it.
The latest personal crisis has reminded me of our tenuous relationship(s) with life and be grateful for the here and now. The Glibs have provided a lot of encouragement and I feel lucky to be included in the group. Even though my life has changed forever it’s still pretty damn good. I’m a lucky guy…
Keep trucking along, ancient one. We need your wisdom for many years to come.
You’re not as lucky to have us as we are to have you.
A good fisherman has his excuses made up before he leaves the boat dock.
“I was just there to relax.”
“I believe in catch and release.”
“I meant to leave the drain plug out.”
OK, I larfed!
I have a lot of explanations, a lot of experience at getting skunked. About 20 years ago my really smart son encouraged me to take a cell phone when I went fishing. I asked him, “Why do you think I go fishing?” His answer, sigh, “Yeah, I forgot”
“Looks windy.”
“Looks like there’s a lot of staining in the water.”
My blood type is B+. Optimism is in my blood.
I always try to keep a PMA personally. I have zero optimism for the country, however.
PMA? Google was no help
Positive mental altitude.
At work it’s preventative maintenance most basic. then there’s “B”, “C” and “D”
PMA= Positive Mental Attitude. As mentioned above a positive attitude is necessary for mental health.
“Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better”
Serenity Now!
I’m O-.
*whump-whump*
The core of my philosophy – ‘There’s no such thing as luck, but there is such a thing as probability.’
Luck is just being on the right side if probability more often than not.
“A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them” PJ O’Rourke.
A friend and I were shooting in a remote meadow one day. At the end of the day we discovered that the battery was dead in the truck. We hiked to the highway and stuck out our thumbs. The first vehicle that came by was being driven by a friend of my friend.
I absolutely believe that you make your own luck but this is an example of random chance coming through in your favor.
Retelling of the Three Little Pigs the end is kind of obvious but I still laughed.
Good one, Plink
I’m an optimist in my day to day.
And even through the last year of nonsense I’m still fairly optimistic. These people aren’t smart.
My pessimism hasn’t failed me yet, but I suppose it will eventually.
/pins tail on my own Eeyore ass
Ooooh. I get to use one of my favorite Winston quotes (Churchill that is).
“I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
Then, again Lily Tomlin has this insight:
“No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up.”
Company zoom meeting today. 1.5 hours.
a) how am I supposed to get done what needs to be done before tomorrow’s test when you suck up 1.5 hours of my time.
b) first video was of a customer, who is also an owner of our product and a doctor, urging us to get the vaccine. “It’s perfectly safe, the CDC says so.”
c) second presentation was from the kid who is our CEO (Rah, rah, rah, valuable team members! Every little thing is most excellent, bro!) “By the way, get your vaccine!”
d) 3rd presentation…”We exceed the average for companies our size in Covid vaccine rates”…Consider getting your vaccine so we can return to normal
e) a presentation on our new “Business Operating System”…cue too loud video filled with vacuous industry buzz words
f) a presentation by the head of HR…we are offering a gift card to the overpriced company store to any team member who presents proof of both vaccinations
I miss the early cowboy days when we worked hard and played hard and called each other on our bullshit. Now it seems to be ALL bullshit.
It might be time for a change.
I miss the early cowboy days when we worked hard and played hard
That was the description of my first few jobs. I loved it.
I then hired on at LANL where a “gitter done” attitude was widespread, starting from the Bomb Days.
A few years after I hired on the whole thing changed around and no one could do anything without a committee action. Wildcat research got real not-fun at that point.
Today I surreptitiously asked a couple VP level attorneys about what it takes to cut through the red tape, and their answer was “suck it up and embrace the red tape”.
Thankfully, that stuff doesn’t really bother me anymore. I used to get all anxious and stressed out about not being productive, but I realized that the check deposits just as easily when I spend all day cutting through red tape and measuring irrelevant shit.
Yeap. I have been at the same organization for 20+ years, with an ownership change in between. Went from 1 of less than 100 employees to 1 of over 7,500 now.
I sure miss those old days. But the current situation has a lot of advantages too and like you say, a paycheck is a paycheck.
I should add that we have very little of the BS Nick mentioned above. That helps working for BigCorp go down a lot easier.
Sounds like it.
Zombieland: Double Tap was on the teevee this evening. I never realized before that the part of Tallahassee was played by our very own westernsloper.
My kid watches both the Zombieland movies over and over. I’ve seen them enough to win any trivia contest that features a question about them. I’ve taken to yelling, “No, NO, NO!” when things go wrong, it’s that bad.
Meet westernsloper on Zoom and you will understand my comment. Westernsloper: “What the fucking fuck?”
Never seen those movies but I can picture it clearly in my head anyway.
I’m a long term optimist with short term pessimistic tendencies.
I have to check myself around pessimists as they are infectious sometimes. The same goes for optimists.
Maybe I’m just contrary and like to constantly look for flaws in everything both good and bad?
Yeah, actual pessimists really grind my gears. I kind of blank out when someone like that at work goes off.
A contrarian? On Glibs?
Well, I never!
No kidding. We are lousy with them.
I’m something else altogether. *does hip thrusts while pointing at crotch*
Flaccid?
So…Billie Jean is not your lover?
OMG I hate that song.
Pelvic thrusts?
*Throws toast at Hobbit*
I’m gonna take a rain check, for now. Y’all go ahead, I’ll catch up later.
I’m not a pessimist I’m a realist.
(BTW if Ozy checks in while I’m asleep here on the east coast I enjoyed part 3 on China.)
Thank you! Four’s in the queue. I should have 5 done by the weekend.
Hey Oz – I hadn’t known you were writing these. I just saw this and went back to read them.
Jeez, I wish I had known what you were up to before you went back then. I have a close friend – American, hill-runner, fitness freak – who started/runs his own China-based company from HKG. He’s been there for ages. Completely fluent/literate in Chinese as well. He could have been a good contact for you.
Optimist. I just can’t help it. Eternally white pilled and a romantic in the true sense of the word.
I’ll answer for myself by reposting a link to a song I shared here not long ago.
If we’re posting feel good songs, I’ll go with this one.
Some giant corp was running a commercial the other day to this. I couldn’t help grinning.
I’m an ELO fan. I remember being fairly incredulous when Cadillac started using Zeppelin songs back in the nineties.
Happy happy joy joy.
Optimistic. Because I believe in my ability to do almost anything I put my mind to.
I guess I’m a cynic? I tend to think everything is full of shit. Although, I often find an odd joy in how ridiculous things are.
Sometimes I regret not taking more risks, or not doing things in my life, that I’ve wasted much of my time.
Other times, I think of how I got away with with things that could have turned out much worse, or the horrible things I’ve seen happen to others who did nothing wrong.
I don’t believe life is fair. So I don’t have much faith in the “Jordan Peterson” thing that if you make the right choices good things will come to you. I’ve been blindsided too many times.
“I often find an odd joy in how ridiculous things are.”
Ha! Yeah, #MEETOO
I echo your sentiment about seeing people get blindsided by life. “Deserves got nuthin’ to do with it” – rings true too often.
I lost an old unit member recently. He was probably 6 or 7 years older than me. More physically fit than most 20 year-olds – was still spending his weekends riding mountain bikes up and down the hills. He had been a life-long bachelor until he met his one, true love at 58. She was much younger and they had three kids in rapid succession – all three still in grade/mid school. Then cancer decided he was done.
Mojo, sorry about your car.
Although the important thing is that you weren’t hurt. You can buy a new car, but you can’t buy a new skeleton.
Tell that to Steve Austin.
Back then, six million was real money.
Or Wolverine.
It was the same skeleton, just plated.
Thanks CP. Sometimes, you CAN’T just buy a new car, though, so…
We can, but there was a time not so long ago that this would have devastated us financially.
Speaking of outlooks, I’ll say this: I’m worth more to my husband dead than alive.
Since he hasn’t cashed in, he must love you❤
He’s a sweetheart. 😉 He was my best internet find evar.
Hopefully the insurance company makes you whole again. And don’t just consider dollars when calculating your worth.
Well true, but even then, at least you can still walk to the bus stop…
I’m generally expecting things to go well but (at least while in the US) have a large bore semi-auto in case I’m terribly wrong.
I’m a kinda mixed opto/pessimist when it comes to where the US is going. One the one hand things seem to be going to shyte faster than I had expected but on the other hand at least all these guns and ammo I’ve been stockpiling will be more useful than I had expected.
I have mood swings.
“Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy sanctuary; give praise in the mighty dome of heaven. Give praise for his mighty deeds, praise him for his great majesty. Give praise with blasts upon the horn, praise him with harp and lyre. Give praise with tambourines and dance, praise him with strings and pipes. Give praise with crashing cymbals, praise him with sounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath give praise to the LORD! Hallelujah!”
(Psalm 150)
“What profit have we from all the toil which we toil at under the sun? One generation departs and another generation comes, but the world forever stays. The sun rises and the sun sets; then it presses on to the place where it rises. Shifting south, then north, back and forth shifts the wind, constantly shifting its course. All rivers flow to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they flow, the rivers continue to flow. All things are wearisome, too wearisome for words.”
(Eccl. 1:3-8)
Bring me down
Can’t nothing bring me down
My level’s too high to bring me down
Can’t nothing bring me down, I said
Bring me down
Can’t nothing bring me down
My level’s too high to bring me down
Can’t nothing bring me down, I said
(Pharrell Williams, “Happy”)
Alas, regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
Nor care beyond to-day:
Yet see how all around ’em wait
The ministers of human fate,
And black Misfortune’s baleful train!
Ah, show them where in ambush stand
To seize their prey the murth’rous band!
Ah, tell them they are men!
(Thomas “Little Miss Sunshine” Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College)
I compile whole playlists of cheesy happy music for when I need a pick-me-up.
I just listen to this over and over.
fist bump
One of my happy songs.
If you want to change it up, this works too.
Love, love, love me some Allmans.
This is one of my favorites of all time.
I’ve seen them live 6 or 7 times. Starting in 1979 and all the wall up until after they fired Dickey Betts and basically fizzled out. Huge fan.
Once, I went to an AA meeting where Gregg read one of the readings and then saw him play the next night at the Greek theater.
It’s not the best recording, but my favorite version of that song is on Live…From Ludlow Garage. I think it’s about 10 minutes longer!
If I had to pick a favorite band, it would be the Allmans. It’s great that there’s so much live material out there that the music never gets old.
Oh, I’m glad to hear, not about your car wreck, but about your survival of same.
Thanks. 🙂 It was a low-speed, tight-quarters T-bone. Coulda been worse.
Yes, yes it could. Glad you are ok, Mo!
Some joker overtook me and several other cars today on a two lane highway. Oncoming car had to pull off the road because this asshole wouldn’t pull back in until he got to the head of the line. Was sure they were going to hit except for that car decided not to be dead right.
Geez, I hate that.
Here’s my Zippicar. https://twitter.com/MoriahJovan/status/1392238047928987654/photo/1
Two junkyard doors and some paint and it’ll be good as new. My dad has an awesome tool set!
So it appears my husband has A Guy™…
This exact thing (nearly) happened the other day in which a crazy person nearly wrote off their new Tesla and whatever was coming the other way. I was far enough behind it all fortunately, but ended up catching up to the Tesla about 10 mins later so I don’t suppose they saved any time ultimately. I’m about to set out on a 4-5hr (depending on traffic, stops) drive. Ugh. There’s one section where 7.5t+ (“lorries”) aren’t supposed to overtake but they all do it and the traffic piles up. It makes people so aggressive; gives them the tunnel vision like anyone immediately in front is the problem. I’m not a fan of that road.
Moj I’m glad you survived. Be thankful for small mercies and sturdy modern automobiles. If that had happened to me in one of my old jalopies I think it would have stoved the door right in.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E1fzJ_AYajA
My happy place
This is a short version but I can’t help feeling better about mankind after listening. See how it impacts everybody in the crowd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbJcQYVtZMo
First comment:
Yep. Still made my morning though.
And a fucker upper of tags.
One day the people and politicians will come crawling to the Libs, begging us to fill up the hole they have dug.
We’ll take their money, skim off the best of their women (or men) and tell them to go to hell and get a job at McDonalds.
It could happen…
Just don’t start trying to think of ways to kick that off. Bugliosi is dead but other’s might have similar imaginations.
I read that as Bella Lagosi. Make of it what you will.
He’s dead
Thank you for spiking the ball.
I know, I know, too easy.
Let me make it up to you
That wasn’t criticism. I really was hoping someone (I’m not surprised it was you) would post the song.
I would swear there is a video with Bauhaus in which Peter Murphy is carried away at the end but I can’t find it.
Cynical optimist?
Another night in California on the Deschutes. Beer selection in the shopette is sucking even harder. No national brands and nothing from the local 800 pound brewery. Cider and hard seltzer shit, and some hopped up crap in a can from a hipster brewery. No bottles at all. Fuck this world.
“Cynical optimist?” Me, too. Look at all the assholes and assholery that the U.S has survived over the years. We made it through the Great Depression, when the majority of our “intellectuals” were Marxists and Pinkos. I think we can survive Biden and the Progressives if we can avoid a permanent Democratic majority in all three branches of government.
Speaking, I assume ya’ll seen this?
My take away is we have too many flag officers.
Yeah. My wife directed me to it. It was a bit hard to find because there’s been so many and on both sides. Too many officers? Yup.
Where in CA are you?
Was flippant, in Central OR.
I scratched my head a bit at California and Deschutes. The Bend light didn’t come on.
Almost any beer tastes good when drinking in the right location, at the right time, with the right people.
*remembers downing Milwaukee’s Ice Beast after a day on the range*
Indeed!
Pessimist.
Because a pessimist only has pleasant surprises.
Well, it’s not all that strange.
Heh.
People are strange…
Had to do it.
BTW, re: the entry pic
HRO and OEU are not SCRABBLE words.
https://youtu.be/suHOLFhbwsM
Ok, there’s some glossed over problems, but HOLY FUCK!
Super cool, but I wouldn’t want to attempt a hostile boarding that way.
“PULL!” …BLAM!!
_exactly_ my thought.
anybody got a stick?
Drifting to the left
Pretty cool. Maybe the Iron Man suit isn’t entirely far fetched.
“The Idaho bill that calls for the extermination of 90 percent of the state’s wolf population has been signed into law.”
https://twitter.com/outsidemagazine/status/1391840983281721344
Smoke a pack a day
I am an optimist and my husband is a pessimist. We experience very nearly the same life situation but I tend to dwell on the positive aspects while he sticks on the negative ones.
I am happier than he is in general.
Is it by willpower or by nature? I think it’s a bit of both. I do think people can train themselves to “find the bright side” or on the opposite side, they can have the lasting happiness beaten out of them by a tough life.
This may sound stupid, but I have been trying to smile more. Not at anyone or anything in particular, but I saw that the lines that are forming around my mouth are not laugh lines and I didn’t want to be a curmudgeon, so I practice smiling. It kind of cheers me up, a fake-it-till-you-make-it sort of thing.
Smile and sunshine. Both wildly underrated.
Seconded. I find that when I manage to get my daily walk in before the sun sets it makes the whole day better.
I do that smilin’ thing sometimes too. It tends to cause women to quickly gather up their children and run indoors.
Maybe I’m doing it wrong?
LOL!
I read something about facial expressions stimulating neural pathways associated with the corresponding emotion – e.g. the physical action of smiling actually does get some happiness chemicals pumping. Not sure if it’s bogus or not, but I do agree that it works for some reason. When I’m really down, I just let out a big fake laugh now and then. It has busted me out of more than a few dreary moods.
Depends on what we’re talking about. In general, I expect things to turn out how I expect them to turn out.
https://archive.li/oLzPQ/329399f8dba7906d5db34860c477d9d1156298a0.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/SShmk/f31199b149ecf72656a83a37b9214a48dc8e2db9.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/4MLlW/96e222f525ae1586fdb10861d00deb63be23645b.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.li/0joeO/1007ec332f58f68223e89a0291dabe87ad816ec1.jpg
NSFW.
Wow!
I don’t have enough time or backbone left to be optimistic. I have some skills, some money, and a good deal of wariness.
Existentially, my kid will be fine; when he has kids, they will be lucky to have him. I’ll live maybe another 20 years which is fine; important parts of how I think have mattered and will ricochet around for at least a couple of generations yet.
But I’m nicked up pretty good. When I accepted this mission, I had 20/15 vision and was rock hard; now I’ve got problems in my good foot and nerve damage in my artistic hand. I’m catching my breath with Butch and Sundance for a final rush I know I won’t survive. My golf game is maxxed out; I won’t get better. I’ll never shoot like I did: easy and unthinking and natural.
https://www.wmcactionnews5.com/2021/05/11/emergency-roadwork-shutdowns-i-bridge/
Our New Bridge (b. 1973) is suddenly closed due to cracks. I know how that feels.
New Wife and I are living our September Song. Commitment and decency will give meaning to our slow, bitter retreat.
We live in the River for the thrill and smell and permanence of it; the Mississippi tolerates us because we don’t matter, and that’s our little deal: we play on this sand bar and She roars by indifferently because She will outlast and devour every thing. Last week she saw deSoto pass, then the French built their fort; yesterday General Jackson bought some acres and the Chickasaw repaired west, and tomorrow I’ll be gone. We mock her with our notions of meaning, but she doesn’t mind the interlopers, the temporary ones, the philsophers.
Mark Twain of depth.
Frontier whimsy is the best style of walking and writing. If you caught me stealing from Twain again, you’ve probably also caught me with Parker on my breath with Wilde’s spoons in my pockets one time or another; I will return endlessly to rifle their sideboards.
I-40, huh? That sucks.
The section of I-40 that goes from Arkansas into Oklahoma fell in the river when a barge drove (?) right into it.
It was at night so any car drivers couldn’t see that the road was missing until it was too late. So car after car plummeted to the waters below until there happened to be 2 cars within sight of each other. The first car plunged in, but the driver of the next car slammed on the brakes when he saw the taillights disappear in front of him. He was then able to block the road and call for help.
That has haunted me.
This happened while I was going to school at RPI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoharie_Creek_Bridge_collapse Of course we drove over to check it out. Bushwacked our way along some fields to get better view before being chased off by a guard.
But now I live on the other end of I-90 and such things could not happen over here, oh, wait.
Pragmatic Pessimist.
Expect the worst and prepare accordingly.
I tend to claim to be a pessimist, saying that either I’m right or I’m pleasantly surprised.
In truth, most of the time I’m phlegmatic. I just trudge on through a lot of the shit thrown at me.
I stoppped having expectations.
They have a pill now that can help you with that… just sayn…
Glass half full / half empty. To me half empty is optimistic. It’s only half empty, it could be completely empty, so here’s looking at you kid. And half full is pessimistic. Half full? Why isn’t it completely full? Because life sucks and then you die.
No, clearly someone used a glass bigger than they needed.
We have an engineer here.
I never understood why it’s supposed to be some kind of problem that the glass is half empty. Take a few more sips then fill it again. If there isn’t enough beer in the pitcher to fill your glass order another pitcher. No need to make things complicated.
Camp Inslee not where you send you kids for the summer.
Even though I’m an optimist as stated above, I have no illusions about the possibility (and sometimes the reality) of something turning out very badly.
So I do have a tendency to ask myself “what’s the worst that can happen (within reason)? “ Then I envision it, imagine how to mitigate it, tell myself that wouldn’t be the end of the world, and quit thinking about it.
Then if things do go awry, I switch to mitigation mode without skipping a beat. People sometimes have freaked out that I’m not freaked out.
Internally I might be panicking, but I’m not showing that, and I already have a plan.
I do that sometimes, and some people seem to get pissed off that I’m not reacting the same way as them. It’s a bit annoying.
Eternal optimist here. The universe will always balance itself so why fight it.
Because your efforts are necessary to attain that balance.
Why are you letting the universe down!?
Not a good day on the Gaza/Israel border.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9565261/Israel-warns-just-begun-unleashes-new-air-strikes-Gaza-overnight-attacks.html
Mayor of the city of Lod:
Total shitshow
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this erupted months into a US administration that has a fundamentally weak and fractured foreign policy.
Joe is coddling Iran. I don’t doubt it led directly to this.
It’s Wednesday, we still live and the World hasn’t collapsed, so…
Good Morning Fellow Glibbies
I’m patiently awaiting the apocalypse.
“Bring bacon and bourbon.”
Bullets and Boobies,
I’ll supply the former, the latter…is byo.
Awesome, I’m covered, and I’ll bring the Ganja,
Re: comment 24
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtffv9bpB-U
?
Morning to all the early birds/birdettes
The time for worm gathering is upon us. , I’m just beginning to see daylight and the bee hives are still in the original positions so no night time visitors. Report yesterday was that one of my hives is dead, in that there is no activity. I find that hard to believe, since they only were installed on Sat. My pardner will be here on he week end and he’ll open up the box and we’ll get a more reading.
Life goes on…
Pessimist. And often still disappointed by reality.
I try to be optimistic (I have nowhere to go but up). But then, yesterday I get a letter from my union asking if I need help applying for COBRA because my health insurance has been cancelled due to involuntary termination or involuntary reduction in hours. This took me by surprise as my hours remain unchanged and I’m still getting a paycheck (out of which health insurance premiums are deducted every week). HR is looking into it; so I got that going for me. Hey ‘Sloper, can I come sling pizza pie from your truck?
Damn, I hope HR sorts that out for you. Sorting out employee issues is the only positive value any HR dept has. And no truck yet and it will probably be a trailer to start if it ever starts because I already own a trailer. I just need to outfit it which will take less money than a truck. Hence buying only cooking appliances that can go remote. If it ever happens you are on though! I will be doing a dough batch this evening after work for more pizza practice this weekend.
This guy is by us – http://www.whitsendnyc.com/ He has a flatbed trailer with a big, domed, Italian brick oven on the back that he brings to local events/catering gigs. I would love a cart on the boardwalk, cranking out beignets and coffee for the crowds of early morning surfers on the couple blocks by us. They’re here year round; they trudge through the snow in wetsuits to hit the early morning tides.
If you use sesame oil in your dough I get 5% off the top.
whaddup doh’ ?
whats goody, fam
Covfefe flows! Sup Tres?
Howdy fellow trouble makers!
Good morning, homey! It’s all the way up to 40 degrees ‘Murcan! Heat wave!!!
Happy hump day, Glibs!
I read somewhere that smart people are pessimists.
I’m an optimist. Annoyingly, apparently, but IDGAF.
Maybe I’m an absurdist.
Regardless, choosing to look for positive things-especially over time-creates it’s own healthy feedback loop.
Absurdist! I like it! Maybe I’ll try that. I could strive to be the absurdest absurdist.
Start here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdSJ1–kBZ4
Well, life certainly gave HIM lemons.
Red? Where you at?
Ohio?
Who, me? Here I am. Just getting caught up on the comments and wondering if I’m going to have to scrape frost off my windshield when I leave for work.
Good morning!
Mine was borderline frosty
Enough water had condensed, and I think its juuuuuust near enough to frost
HOLD UP…..you live in the nice section of our ghetto
Dont you briars have a garage ?
Yes, we have a two-car garage.
There is no room in said garage for even a Smart car. (Which I’m not allowed to have. That’s OK – I wubs my Subadu.)
Am I going to see you and Tom T. on an episode of “Hoarders” ?
God, I hope so.
Please let me know if you ever need a Useful Box.
We
hoardcollect boxes. They’re so very useful.Also, a bunch of the rock-n-roll lives in the garage. And in the basement. And in the “dining room”…
(hangs head) I have been forced, on several occasions, to divest our home of my precious fancy-boxes.
I also have a closet shelf piled with smaller “gift boxes.” And shoe boxes. And my gift bag full of gift bags…
Doesn’t everyone?
I would rather be on HEE HAW! “Hee Haw salutes my hometown of Rockaway Beach, New York, population 130,000. SALUTE!”
I just imagined them performing a bluegrass cover of “Rockaway Beach” on that fictional “Hee Haw” episode and it made me smile a lot. Does that mean that I am an optimist now? 😉
You need a 5S event for sure. Garage is for cars is something my wife and I totally agree on. Is yours the family musical space?
It’s a storage locker. The main musical space is the room right at the bottom of the basement stairs. Helps us keep from getting the cops called on us…at least for noise…
*lights Derp signal*
Why do you hate the French?
Optimist or pessimist…what camp does cynical asshole fall into? Realist maybe?
Glib?
Morning Glibs.
suh’ fam
Gotta answer a lot of vendor questions today.
Vendors are the worst. I know, Im one (when doing the Lord’s work in my chosen career).
Then again, I have vendors, too. They’re handy @Christmas for free shit. But being a pubic employee, I doubt you’re able to accept such graft.
We’re not allowed to accept vendor gifts.
I know. As someone that deals with local, state, and federal EPA critters, I cant even buy their lunch on a project even when I get it for my crew. Once in Kentucky, I was getting some flavor of fast food for my guys, and the state overseer rode with me (KDEQ- Kentucky Dept of Environmental Quality). When she turned down being included in my sizable order, I said “fine- I get it. No “gifts”.” Her order was for 2 items from the dollar menu. When I said “you must not be hungry” she said “No, Im starved. But Im broke. As a single mom on a state salary, I stretch it out.” I felt bad and said “ya know, I can just leave a $20 in the ashtray and wont look when you take it, and you cant eat something more filling”. She wouldnt do it.
Tell her to run for governor so you can vote for her.
She is part indian (sub-continent, not feather/casino) and part E. Kentucky hillbilly.
An absolute smokeshow. I was really only being nice to try to get in her pants. As a broke, single, mom, you already know she puts out.
Channel your inner Magic 8 Ball.
This is in a meeting with our management rather than the vendors. We have to make sure the wording is just so.
That reminds me – I think maybe I’m supposed to somehow combine our vendor risk classification questionnaire with our vendor risk assessment form with…something else? For our vendor risk management program, which is the least favorite among my various and sundry duties.
My boss is taking tomorrow off. Maybe he won’t think about vendor management today.
Good morning, U!
Good morning, UC, GT, TC, SW, Scruffy, and the lurkers. Going to be a soggy, cool, crappy traffic day, but at least I’ll be having a late beer lunch for free.
Good morning, TARDy! Free late beer lunch is something to look forward to.
enjoy it, blighter
Im having my breakfast-supper Tall Cans® and considering ordering some Frisch’s
Swiss Miss FTW!!!
I’m off tonight. Got a 30-pack, a frozen pizza, and Im on 2 of 6 24 oz’ers
TALL MOTHERFUKIN CANS!!
I attempt to be stoic.
*blank stare*
::makes silly faces at Scruffy to try to make him laugh:: Auditioning for the Royal Guard?
If you’re in the mood for kitchy, cheese-y, 60s lounge/ Rumpus Room music, as background for your day, may I direct you to https://luxuriamusic.com/
(NOT a paid sponsor of Tres Cool Entertainment Holdings Pty. Ltd)
Pessimist. Dodge all of the bullets you want, in the end one is going to get you.
Eggs Benedict for breakfast, fried fish sandwiches and a nice salad for supper. Speaking of bullets, I have to buy tires and a new lawnmower. Goddammit I am choking on the prices.
Good morning all.
whaddup cou rouge ? An employee thats originally from NO and I were talking overnight about étouffée. I made some before and shared. He was asking when Im doing it again.
#CoonAss-approved
Highly recommended: https://cajun-recipes.com
take your pick. You can’t miss.
Jesus H. Koresh- 17 version of étouffée
Which is basically me getting drunk, and making it 17 times
“That was really good- how’d you make it?”
“I have no recollection”
*sigh* My erudite comment was lost in the aether… As some of you may know I’ve been making a conscious effort to stop being such an “Eeyore” in my daily life and my on-line presence. It seems to be paying dividends. One small trick is to really take an interest in what other people’s travails are. Ask them about a problem that they mentioned before and if it has been resolved. If nothing else, they get a chance to vent and more happily you might offer some advice. The silver bullet is that you stop thinking about your own woes for one or five or ten hot minutes. People want to vent and being a good listener is as easy as keeping your own mouth shut for awhile. I knew this as a boy but here I am, 56 and relearning the lesson.
A good lead-in I picked up a couple years ago from my step-mother’s wacky cousin is asking someone, “What can you tell me about _____ ?”
The context of that meeting was Dad had recently been to Flo-RIDA, and the wacky dude said “Oh- what can you tell me about the fishing down there?”
Its a great device to use to make you seem eager to listen, and puts the speaker in a position of “Well, I know that ____….” and makes them think about (x).
Thanks to both of you. That’s good advice.
I use it often (when I remember), particularly with shy people or shoe-gazers. I can be a talker.
Some of the employees at work are 20-soemthings that still live at home (with Mom or such) and spend their lives online, mostly gaming. Next to no social skills except amongst each other. So Ill break the ice with “so I heard you talking about (insert game here). Im not a gamer- too old. But what can you tell me about your system?”
I have no problem interacting with you hoomans. It’s more of an attitude adjustment to get the fuck outside of my own brain and relearn a little of the empathy that served me so well when I was younger. Chicks dig a good listener 😉
On the gripping hand, having dealt with crippling clinical depression in my youth might have inured me from ever feeling really optimistic forever. Small steps, though. I’m liking this new, better direction. It can’t be all bad, can it?
Good morning Festus.
“…take an interest in what other people’s travails are.”
Or you could take a listen to a voice like honey…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWIaeQFcbYg
Hayde is on repeat for me, thanks to you! Returning the favor – https://youtu.be/1n57WBtvtC4
Thank you Sir. Here is a little bit more joy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJY4asP8lT4
She’s on there too! Have a great one, Ent!
One thing I’ve learned is that, if you’re feeling down and depressed you should go find someone that needs help and help them. It’s impossible to wallow in self pity while you’re helping someone else. Don’t much matter what kind of help. Just help anyone who needs it. That’s one of the best things about being a parent. You’re so busy helping your kid, you don’t really get bummed out too much.
Cynical optimist.
Mornin’ folks!
Morning Tundra, and the rest of you early posters.
I cant remember which one of you looked like a Cabela’s model….but mornin’
*raises Styrofoam cup of shit coffee*
Here’s to humanity!
I like to think of myself as “cautiously optimistic”.
I try to think well of other people until the evidence is in.
Unless they’re in front of me in the left lane, then they’re just commie rat fuckers. ?
I’m an optimistic pessimist. Hope for the
bestokay, expect theworstnot too bad.People want to vent and being a good listener is as easy as keeping your own mouth shut for awhile.
I pathologically loathe talking about myself, so that’s my standard tactic. Most people love to tell you about themselves.
Unless they’re in front of me in the left lane, then they’re just commie rat fuckers.
If they’re in the left lane and they’re not getting smaller, that’s as much as you need to know.
Initially in life, I was pretty pessimistic across the board. But, after consistently being wrong for years, I learned.
I’m now smart enough to be a long term pessimist, that way the goal posts can keep moving out another 5 years or so. While maintaining my short to medium term optimism. This has really helped me out psychologically in my business dealings.
Who can blame me though? I awoke to burning skyscrapers in my teen years and a stock market crash. Then my generation went off to fight a quasi-war in a couple of absolute shit holes. Then 4 years later the housing market crashed, i got pretty burned on that.
It’s only a mistake if you didn’t learn from it. let me tell you, I’ve had a lot of learning.
At the end of the day, the world will move on to a better tomorrow. Invest and plan for that. Because in the very slight chance you’re wrong… it won’t really matter anyways.
https://twitter.com/GasBuddyGuy/status/1392447982944067584
Anyone know the accuracy of that?
I saw a couple outages locally last week.
Can confirm; went to the store, all gas stations taped off in my area.
Congratulations to everyone that voted against OMB. I hope they are all proud of themselves.
Ten bucks says they all still think Jimmeh Cahtah is a good man.
+ hostage rescue failure
Looks like the Carolinas are a gasoline desert. Where are the advocacy groups?
1. On matters that involve only my own knowledge, skills and talents, I’m an optimist.
2. On matters that require any form of reliance on the knowledge, skills and talents of others, I’m a pessimist. (Present company excepted, of course.)
As someone said above, “plan for the worst, hope for the best” is a pretty good maxim for life, and a good way to avoid disappointment.
As far as the near future of the great American experiment, see item 2 above.