The Stories and Novels By Derek Ward
My commute home is normally about an hour. Monday it was three hours. I was grumbly about how long it took me to get home all Monday night and into Tuesday morning.
Then this came across my newsfeed. If the article isn’t updated, the toddler passed away last night.
I’m going to shut the fuck up now.
We’re getting into the two busiest months at the day job. Plus, I’m competing for Toastmasters.
Blogging will be light and sporadic.
Working on Toastmasters speech.
Per Miguel’s prompting, I sat down and watched Cajun Navy. The Wife deferred due to both her hatred of storms and seeing animals in distress. She’s a soft heart, which is something I need in my life.
Watching people, regular people, travel over a thousand miles for the chance of rescuing someone, refreshes my general optimism in people. Particularly when they say “fuck you” to the authorities and still go out there. You say my certified lifeguard son can’t go save people because he’s not 18? Fine, we’ll go where you’re not.
One point made is that the people they rescue haven’t evacuated because they’re just stupid (not to say there aren’t stupid mixed in). These folks often don’t have the wherewithal to evacuate. It’s hard to leave when you don’t have a car or a place to go. Something to keep in mind when watching the news.
In my county, the local government is putting them to work.
Interesting concept, but I don’t know if we’ll ever find out if it’s truly effective. It is a government program after all.
Tam makes a comment on a post and I go from ten views to forty! Welcome everyone!
I’m feeling fatigued with politics and even economics. Not really inspired to write or comment today.
The Army’s looking for a new helo to replace the venerable Blackhawk.
Bell Helicopter is submitting its V-280 Valor tilt-rotor.
Sikorsky And Boeing have their SB-1 Defiant.
https://youtu.be/N–dMwrRhog
Personally, I think the Defiant would fill the Blackhawk role better because of its smaller rotor-print. I can see a Defiant getting into the places troops need helos. I could see a tilt-rotor taking the heavy-lift role, such as the Chinook and the Sea Stallion.
The Army is also looking for a new scout bird. War Is Boring has a look at one of the proposals. The pick kind of looks like a Russian take on the old RAH-66 Commanchero prototype.
Work is insane right now, so I’ve got a bunch of articles I’d love to do more analysis, but I will have to just settle for letting my readers do their own.
National Review takes on the leftist view of a typical concealed carrier.
FEE discusses the humanity in the gun control debate.
An American Thinker article on whether or not the Second Civil War has begun. I think a Second Civil War will look less like the First Civil War and more like Beirut in the eighties or the breakup of Yugoslavia.
Reason discussing why the right going down the identity politics road is far more dangerous. Honestly, I worry about what happens if the Threeper continent is ever moved to true violence.
War Is Boring talking over the current Army program to replace the current small arms.
Finally, The Brother turned me on to this little site that prints pictures into glass. One of The Wife and me on our wedding day is hanging in my home office.
ShoeOnHead put this video out:
Is life easier for thin people? In so many ways. Is it privilege? Nope. Any more than being mainstream is privilege compared to being a geek.
Weight loss is hard. It’s easy to get discouraged. It’s easy to get frustrated with all the looks of disdain, and not finding clothes that fit, and not finding chairs that fit, and the unasked for advice. And what do most of us heavy people do when frustrated? We eat. We eat because it’s a pleasure. It’s a moment of bliss in a sea of agony.
But Derek, why are you calling yourself heavy? Didn’t you lose a bunch of weight?
Yeah. I did. It was hard work for TWO YEARS. And the moment I stop doing the hard work of counting calories, I will balloon right back up. So, no matter how “thin” I get, I know there’s a heavy person screaming for me to just eat all the chocolate.
Could society be better towards heavy people? Maybe, but society could be better towards everyone. Does that let heavy people off the hook? No. We got dealt a hand of slow metabolism, which means we have to work harder to stay fit. It sucks. It took me more tries than I want to think about to find a plan and mindset that worked for me.
I won’t condemn someone for being heavy. I will condemn someone for blaming others for their problems without evidence.
And thin privilege has less evidence than acupuncture.