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shadowkatToday, I bring you - winter in Brooklyn. Or rather my neck of the wood in Brooklyn. Apparently we got enough wet heavy snow to build snow men, and go sledding - area kids were in heaven. I did not. I'm old. And my body aches in snow. Also I'm not fan of winter sports. They are wet, cold, and the ground is hard. I'll pass. I did it as a kid, I did it as a teen, I did it in my twenties and thirties. I have no interest doing it now. Instead I take pictures.
I don't understand people sometimes. I was talking to my mother about this today. One of my social media friends on Facebook bought an eye palette and lip gloss for her birthday. The appeal is completely lost on me. Another went to the spa - during a pandemic, to get her nails and hair done. And she couldn't wait to do it after the spring. She's been several times.
The appeal of makeup has always been lost on me. Why women enjoy putting powder on their eyelids, chemicals on their face and lips..I do not understand. The plus side of the pandemic - is it's not required. No one can see my face and on church Zoom - I'm finding it doesn't matter. (Work teams, I can turn the camera off - everyone else does.)
The powder always made my eyes itch - I tended to rub it off within minutes. I'd do eyeliner - but it smears, and my hands shake. I do do it - for work, but since pandemic? Have not bothered.
Anyhow, today was a quiet day. I slept in late. I watched television. I talked to mother. I played phone tag with niece. I took a walk to the pharmacy to buy Christmas Chocolate (basically Russell Stover Chocolate Covered Marshmellow Santas and Trees. Some had carmel. One was a truffle. I should have gotten more than one truffle - the truffle was good. Along with a box of chocolates. Popcorn. Chips. Water. Zero Sugar Vitamin Water. Unsweetened Iced Tea (Iced Tea is a thing in the US). Lysol Wipes (scored another cylinder! Last one left on the shelf! I use them to clean and they are impossible to find since COVID). Cheese sticks. Ziplock Refrigerator Bags. And scented face wipes.
[ Remember the days when you didn't buy water from stores and could trust it coming out of your pipes without a filter?]
I did mostly just to see what it was like outside. Not quite as cold as predicted. I probably didn't need the layers. I had put on a turtleneck, a sweater, jeans, heavy coat, scarf, hat, batik face mask, and LL Bean Snow Boots. Plus? I got to try out the new LL Bean winter snow boots - which were more comfy than expected. I was afraid they'd rub the heels - since they seemed to be too big. Also very useful - since it was "slushy" outside. (Pleasant surprise that - since I'd passed the date in which they could be returned.) The boots were needed. The sweater not so much - I was hot.
Also, I think we got about five-six inches if that. I wanted more - and I wanted it on Christmas Eve. Usually I spend my Christmas in Hilton Head, walking a beach. If I can't go there - I'd like to have a lot of snow.
Apparently, I wasn't alone in that - New Yorkers were actually really happy with the snowstorm on Wed and Thursday, and wholeheartedly embraced it on Thursday with sledding. Lots of sledders were reported on the slopes. One guy on FB posted a video of people sledding in the park from above - looked like a bunch of tiny ants moving about.
Greenwood Cemetery apparently opened around 1 pm today, but I'm holding off until maybe Saturday or Sunday. One of the members of church/bible study invited me to her Zoom tree trimming Chili party. She has several Zoom telecasts set up for this - one with Fire Islanders, one with Unitarians, and one with other friends/family. I think I may skip it. She does it every year - this is the first time I've been invited, but it is also the first time I've been in town.
I'm a little annoyed that the Winter Solstice Service is not being held on Zoom, but rather in the Chapel Garden in front of the Church. The Garden isn't very big. It fits maybe five people if that. And it's just slightly off the street. Also I'd have to take the subway - a thirty to forty minute ride to get there. At night. On a Sunday night. With limited service.
I think not. They couldn't do it by Zoom as well? Although I guess that would foil the point of it.
The Age of Misinformation
Not enough evil marketing are dying. Or evil marketing people posing as reputable journalists. Is that offensive? Not sorry.
I'm sick of it. I've come to the conclusion that the only reliable sources of information at the moment are The New York Times, Spectrum News aka NY1,
and possibly the PBS news programs (although I don't watch so don't really know). The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Mother Jones, CNN, Fox, Business Insider, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, etc have all lost my respect. They keep posting nasty fake news that they don't check first - and a lot of pointless and inflammatory rhetoric and opinions. They are worse than twitter.
Stop it already. I'm tired of seeing these pointless and inflammatory articles on social media. I want to strangle the journalists. Stop giving these idiots a voice.
My blood pressure keeps being sent skyrocketing by it. (Note I need to learn not to doom scroll.) I was going to tell you what prompted this little rant, but you really don't want to know. I see no reason to send your blood pressure sky-rocketing too.
Oh, AND.. I was annoyed earlier in the week - because without warning, I stopped getting my NY Times briefings. I'd begun to rely on them. Found them kind of reassuring actually. Back in 2016 - I got a digital subscription to the NY Times in an attempt to support reliable and good journalism. I've read the NY Times since I was a child - in Kansas City and Pennsylvania - my father would often pick up the Sunday Times or get it weekly. And I'd pick up the print version off and on, I even subscribed for a bit. I trust the Times. I've read another other papers - to realize it's one of the few I can trust.
Anyhow, over the week - they apparently had a technical snafu with google emails - so we didn't get our daily briefings delivered to our email in-boxes. It's since been corrected. (I freaked out and went about re-subscribing to various newsletters - not the times digital - I was already there. Checking my account. And hunting the briefings down online. This is when I realized how comforting these daily briefings had become during a period of time - in which I've decided that there are evil marketing people posing as journalists in an coordinated and highly organized attempt to gaslight everyone.
I feel like I'm on a roller-coaster ride with a billion people. And I want off.
Rant over. Here...have another snowy picture...
Saw the Governor's briefing again. It was rather amusing in places.
Apparently the City misunderstood the State's edict on indoor and outdoor dining, and presumed that bathrooms couldn't be used. This resulted in an outcry from the restaurant establishment and patrons - who wanted to use the bathroom - if they dine outdoors. They argued that they should at least be able to use the restaurants bathroom - if they dine there - even if it is outdoors.
So, the State clarified its edict, that the ban on indoor dining did not include "bathroom" usage.
Anyhow, the NYC restaurant establishment is pissed off at the Governor and has decided to permanently ban him from dining in their establishments.
I'm not sure he cares. I wouldn't care. I rarely go out to eat. And now, I'm having even less inclination to. I'm not particularly fond of restaurants.
Or dining out. Nor do I miss it.
Besides - Broadway theaters are still closed, as are movie theaters for the most part, and concert venues. Restaurants can at least do take out. They aren't the victims they like to think. Whiny yes. Victims no.
Me: They aren't locking down New York again.
Mother: Isn't it already locked down? I heard they were shutting down indoor dining again?
Me: Gyms, museums, schools, hair salons are still open.
Mother: Why not indoor dining? That's not any worse than a gym or hair salon.
Me: Well, it kind of is - you have to take off your mask to eat and drink, you don't to get your hair, nails, or toes done. Or to work out - apparently.
I honestly think you have to be out of your mind to dine at a restaurant right now. The outdoor doesn't look safe to me.
Per the Governor's email and briefing - a new record number of tests were performed in NY State - 249,000 - and we're at 22 million tests. California is above us at 28 million (California has a population of around 33-38 million, New York's is 19 million.)
Hospitalizations are down in NY (YAY). Deaths are up. (BOO! HISS!) Cases are up - New York State broke its own record for the most positive tests reported in a single day, with 12,606 new cases on Friday. The previous peak was in early April, when testing was less widely available and significantly fewer tests were being conducted. [Frigging hell. Boo! Hiss!] We're still under a million at least, but barely. The US as a whole, not so lucky, with 316,000 deaths, and over 17 million cases. Meanwhile Pence, Pelosi, McConnell, and soon Biden and Fauci. Trump of course refuses to get one. I hope Trump spontaneously combusts from hot air.
[Sources? NY Times and the NY State Department of Health, also the Johns Hopkins University COVID Data Site aka The COVID MAP of DOOM. I've stuck with the same sources all the way through 2020. I fact checked - they are reliable and logical. All other sources - I won't believe. Sorry, folks. I've a degree in fact checking.]
Europe isn't doing much better. It has passed 500,000 death across the continent. Actually, weirdly, it's the folks in Asia, New Zealand, and Australia - where it all started, that are doing okay. New Zealand is doing great - but New Zealand also is an island, very far away from the rest of us, and didn't get many cases to begin with.
Someone once asked what advice would I give my younger self in the 1980s, if I could go back in time.
My response?
Me: Move to New Zealand - the sooner the better. Don't ask why. Just do it. Trust me.
Younger self: New Zealand?
ME: Yes.
Younger Self: What about Europe?
ME: New Zeland.
Younger Self: How about Costa Rica?
Me: New Zealand.
Younger Self: Canada?
ME: No. New Zeland.
Younger Self: What about Australia?
Me: Uh..(ponders. Remembers the fires.) Nah. New Zealand.
Younger Self: Why?
ME: Just do it. You'll thank me later.
In another timeline, I'm lying on a beach with my immediate family, a Mai Tai in hand, in New Zealand -- happy as a clam. I want to be in that timeline. Can I be in that timeline?
I don't understand people sometimes. I was talking to my mother about this today. One of my social media friends on Facebook bought an eye palette and lip gloss for her birthday. The appeal is completely lost on me. Another went to the spa - during a pandemic, to get her nails and hair done. And she couldn't wait to do it after the spring. She's been several times.
The appeal of makeup has always been lost on me. Why women enjoy putting powder on their eyelids, chemicals on their face and lips..I do not understand. The plus side of the pandemic - is it's not required. No one can see my face and on church Zoom - I'm finding it doesn't matter. (Work teams, I can turn the camera off - everyone else does.)
The powder always made my eyes itch - I tended to rub it off within minutes. I'd do eyeliner - but it smears, and my hands shake. I do do it - for work, but since pandemic? Have not bothered.
Anyhow, today was a quiet day. I slept in late. I watched television. I talked to mother. I played phone tag with niece. I took a walk to the pharmacy to buy Christmas Chocolate (basically Russell Stover Chocolate Covered Marshmellow Santas and Trees. Some had carmel. One was a truffle. I should have gotten more than one truffle - the truffle was good. Along with a box of chocolates. Popcorn. Chips. Water. Zero Sugar Vitamin Water. Unsweetened Iced Tea (Iced Tea is a thing in the US). Lysol Wipes (scored another cylinder! Last one left on the shelf! I use them to clean and they are impossible to find since COVID). Cheese sticks. Ziplock Refrigerator Bags. And scented face wipes.
[ Remember the days when you didn't buy water from stores and could trust it coming out of your pipes without a filter?]
I did mostly just to see what it was like outside. Not quite as cold as predicted. I probably didn't need the layers. I had put on a turtleneck, a sweater, jeans, heavy coat, scarf, hat, batik face mask, and LL Bean Snow Boots. Plus? I got to try out the new LL Bean winter snow boots - which were more comfy than expected. I was afraid they'd rub the heels - since they seemed to be too big. Also very useful - since it was "slushy" outside. (Pleasant surprise that - since I'd passed the date in which they could be returned.) The boots were needed. The sweater not so much - I was hot.
Also, I think we got about five-six inches if that. I wanted more - and I wanted it on Christmas Eve. Usually I spend my Christmas in Hilton Head, walking a beach. If I can't go there - I'd like to have a lot of snow.
Apparently, I wasn't alone in that - New Yorkers were actually really happy with the snowstorm on Wed and Thursday, and wholeheartedly embraced it on Thursday with sledding. Lots of sledders were reported on the slopes. One guy on FB posted a video of people sledding in the park from above - looked like a bunch of tiny ants moving about.
Greenwood Cemetery apparently opened around 1 pm today, but I'm holding off until maybe Saturday or Sunday. One of the members of church/bible study invited me to her Zoom tree trimming Chili party. She has several Zoom telecasts set up for this - one with Fire Islanders, one with Unitarians, and one with other friends/family. I think I may skip it. She does it every year - this is the first time I've been invited, but it is also the first time I've been in town.
I'm a little annoyed that the Winter Solstice Service is not being held on Zoom, but rather in the Chapel Garden in front of the Church. The Garden isn't very big. It fits maybe five people if that. And it's just slightly off the street. Also I'd have to take the subway - a thirty to forty minute ride to get there. At night. On a Sunday night. With limited service.
I think not. They couldn't do it by Zoom as well? Although I guess that would foil the point of it.
The Age of Misinformation
Not enough evil marketing are dying. Or evil marketing people posing as reputable journalists. Is that offensive? Not sorry.
I'm sick of it. I've come to the conclusion that the only reliable sources of information at the moment are The New York Times, Spectrum News aka NY1,
and possibly the PBS news programs (although I don't watch so don't really know). The Washington Post, Boston Globe, Mother Jones, CNN, Fox, Business Insider, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal, MSNBC, etc have all lost my respect. They keep posting nasty fake news that they don't check first - and a lot of pointless and inflammatory rhetoric and opinions. They are worse than twitter.
Stop it already. I'm tired of seeing these pointless and inflammatory articles on social media. I want to strangle the journalists. Stop giving these idiots a voice.
My blood pressure keeps being sent skyrocketing by it. (Note I need to learn not to doom scroll.) I was going to tell you what prompted this little rant, but you really don't want to know. I see no reason to send your blood pressure sky-rocketing too.
Oh, AND.. I was annoyed earlier in the week - because without warning, I stopped getting my NY Times briefings. I'd begun to rely on them. Found them kind of reassuring actually. Back in 2016 - I got a digital subscription to the NY Times in an attempt to support reliable and good journalism. I've read the NY Times since I was a child - in Kansas City and Pennsylvania - my father would often pick up the Sunday Times or get it weekly. And I'd pick up the print version off and on, I even subscribed for a bit. I trust the Times. I've read another other papers - to realize it's one of the few I can trust.
Anyhow, over the week - they apparently had a technical snafu with google emails - so we didn't get our daily briefings delivered to our email in-boxes. It's since been corrected. (I freaked out and went about re-subscribing to various newsletters - not the times digital - I was already there. Checking my account. And hunting the briefings down online. This is when I realized how comforting these daily briefings had become during a period of time - in which I've decided that there are evil marketing people posing as journalists in an coordinated and highly organized attempt to gaslight everyone.
I feel like I'm on a roller-coaster ride with a billion people. And I want off.
Rant over. Here...have another snowy picture...
Saw the Governor's briefing again. It was rather amusing in places.
Apparently the City misunderstood the State's edict on indoor and outdoor dining, and presumed that bathrooms couldn't be used. This resulted in an outcry from the restaurant establishment and patrons - who wanted to use the bathroom - if they dine outdoors. They argued that they should at least be able to use the restaurants bathroom - if they dine there - even if it is outdoors.
So, the State clarified its edict, that the ban on indoor dining did not include "bathroom" usage.
Anyhow, the NYC restaurant establishment is pissed off at the Governor and has decided to permanently ban him from dining in their establishments.
I'm not sure he cares. I wouldn't care. I rarely go out to eat. And now, I'm having even less inclination to. I'm not particularly fond of restaurants.
Or dining out. Nor do I miss it.
Besides - Broadway theaters are still closed, as are movie theaters for the most part, and concert venues. Restaurants can at least do take out. They aren't the victims they like to think. Whiny yes. Victims no.
Me: They aren't locking down New York again.
Mother: Isn't it already locked down? I heard they were shutting down indoor dining again?
Me: Gyms, museums, schools, hair salons are still open.
Mother: Why not indoor dining? That's not any worse than a gym or hair salon.
Me: Well, it kind of is - you have to take off your mask to eat and drink, you don't to get your hair, nails, or toes done. Or to work out - apparently.
I honestly think you have to be out of your mind to dine at a restaurant right now. The outdoor doesn't look safe to me.
Per the Governor's email and briefing - a new record number of tests were performed in NY State - 249,000 - and we're at 22 million tests. California is above us at 28 million (California has a population of around 33-38 million, New York's is 19 million.)
Hospitalizations are down in NY (YAY). Deaths are up. (BOO! HISS!) Cases are up - New York State broke its own record for the most positive tests reported in a single day, with 12,606 new cases on Friday. The previous peak was in early April, when testing was less widely available and significantly fewer tests were being conducted. [Frigging hell. Boo! Hiss!] We're still under a million at least, but barely. The US as a whole, not so lucky, with 316,000 deaths, and over 17 million cases. Meanwhile Pence, Pelosi, McConnell, and soon Biden and Fauci. Trump of course refuses to get one. I hope Trump spontaneously combusts from hot air.
[Sources? NY Times and the NY State Department of Health, also the Johns Hopkins University COVID Data Site aka The COVID MAP of DOOM. I've stuck with the same sources all the way through 2020. I fact checked - they are reliable and logical. All other sources - I won't believe. Sorry, folks. I've a degree in fact checking.]
Europe isn't doing much better. It has passed 500,000 death across the continent. Actually, weirdly, it's the folks in Asia, New Zealand, and Australia - where it all started, that are doing okay. New Zealand is doing great - but New Zealand also is an island, very far away from the rest of us, and didn't get many cases to begin with.
Someone once asked what advice would I give my younger self in the 1980s, if I could go back in time.
My response?
Me: Move to New Zealand - the sooner the better. Don't ask why. Just do it. Trust me.
Younger self: New Zealand?
ME: Yes.
Younger Self: What about Europe?
ME: New Zeland.
Younger Self: How about Costa Rica?
Me: New Zealand.
Younger Self: Canada?
ME: No. New Zeland.
Younger Self: What about Australia?
Me: Uh..(ponders. Remembers the fires.) Nah. New Zealand.
Younger Self: Why?
ME: Just do it. You'll thank me later.
In another timeline, I'm lying on a beach with my immediate family, a Mai Tai in hand, in New Zealand -- happy as a clam. I want to be in that timeline. Can I be in that timeline?
no subject
Date: 2020-12-19 11:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-19 06:19 pm (UTC)I don't usually wear any, but have been through phases when I did. First, as a teenager, because it's what teenage girls did. But I never liked to wear a whole mask of foundation, powder etc. It felt too suffocating. Gave up completely when I joined a hippy cult, because, natural etc. Started again in a big way when I first saw Adam and the Ants, in 1981. I was an Antperson for a while, and then a goth. I enjoyed playing with colour, making a sometimes-startling impression, and expressing musical tribalism. (Had a mohawk for a while too). Mostly I don't wear any now, but if I go to a party, I'll just accentuate my eyes and lips, because it looks better if we take photos, or sometimes I'll go the whole hog, and slap colour and symbols over my eyes, nose and cheeks. Just for a change. So on the whole, I guess it's an identity thing?
no subject
Date: 2020-12-19 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-12-19 10:35 pm (UTC)Interesting on lip gloss - it always drys out my lips for some reason. I use chapstick mostly.
I will put on foundation - it blends, but I hate it, blocks pores and feels heavy. Although I was using it - thinking the SPF would help with the sun - now, not so certain. Also a year without putting it on that much - it's kind of pointless with a mask and gets on the mask - I wonder why I bothered.