Wednesday, November 16th 2022
This is no way to end a peaceful night or begin what should have been a peaceful day.
It appears that the Russians cannot live without expensive counterpunching that requires no skill. They are getting their asses kicked on the battlefield, they are losing face in Moscow and in response, they launched 100 missiles, more than a billion dollars shut off like fireworks, and in their haste to wipe out the electricity in Ukraine, they managed to hit Poland killing two citizens. What happened? They were evicted from G20 and now Poland is calling a meeting to discuss article 4, the article that calls all NATO countries together in the time of encroachment on their territory.
What does this all mean? It means we’ve just started World War 3.
Okay, that was like a clickbait sentence right? No, not really. If Poland now becomes active in this war, and the Polish despite all of their similarities and corruptions, I attest to this personally, absolutely hate Russia. They are also absolutely in bed with the Americans and absolutely in love with their European status. They also stick me in the corner between two rocks making my place even harder than it was before. They share a border with Ukraine but they also share a border with Belarus and my little pizza wedge happens to be in between the two of them in a direct fly over line.
Winter puts pressure on the decision to adjust, put up a middle finger and say enough is enough, we don’t want your oil anymore. People are not going to vote against the oil business because the oil business will never stop talking long enough to let them think clearly about their options. But even the fact that this little special military conflict began in the early spring, just after Valentine’s Day, nobody bothered to make this logical and quite sustainable decision. They just kept going to work and saying it’s somebody else’s War. They just kept up the economic flow because God forbid they should stop the economic flow. But if Russia has a billion dollars to waste on Iranian missiles, that was a billion dollars that were given to them by Europeans who couldn’t just take the train or ride their bicycle All Summer Long. And this is global warming summer which means it’s been warm enough for everybody to make a conscious decision.
It also seems that Ukraine has given a list of demands about peace talks. The Russians immediately answered that they are unrealistic but one thing I caught a glance of during the video was a demand for compensation for eco damage. In all the time I have been watching this miserable act of global stupidity escalate, this is the first time anybody has mentioned the ecological damage caused by all of this toxic male behavior. All of this drunk and stupidity has had exactly the effect that all drunken stupidity has. It exacerbates the cancer that is us.
Most of the information is seconded in this second map Reading video from Denys Davydov. He pulls his punches a little bit and allows that there might be some argument as to who’s rocket landed in Poland. He also points out that America is not reacting but rather thinking about what to do. He also says that he might have been a little fast in his information about the ukrainians crossing the Dnipro river and taking Olejki city. Now it seems the mayor there says that there is fighting still ongoing.
Too much information too quickly. I don’t even drink coffee but this would be a situation where one would think you’d be better off getting this after your morning cup.
***
It’s about 6:00 a.m. and according to all weather sources, we are still in the single digits temperature wise but we are getting pretty close to the magic number. They believe that the temperature will hold at around 3 or 4° (a bit below 40° f) today before dropping into one week of single digit Frost starting tomorrow. I don’t want to be cynical because it has been raining a lot for the last 6 weeks but they are also predicting our first snow.
For whatever it means, I did light a fire last night but I used only four pieces of wood and this morning, I am quite comfortable here in the warm room. I don’t think there is any reason to stay here all day or to change my way of doing business. This is a very, very good thing because I am on my homemade platform where I spent the night and have been sleeping since I built it. That means that my personal comfort has been taken care of. We will see what happens when we cross the zero threshold tomorrow. I do not think it’s a very good idea to count your beans before they are fully grown. But as of the moment, I have optimism that my design worked very well.
I also spent time last night working out. Honestly, I have been pretty lazy about that lately. Again, talk this up to too much oil cooking and too much comfort food. Yesterday I had one main meal and then I snacked on some walnuts and sunflower seeds with a couple of raisins. The main meal was peas and chickpeas with a little bit of buckwheat pasta for a simple starch. This could be seen as a high protein meal easily enough. Cutting back on the oil, doubling up on the protein and complex carbs and playing with weights and stretching for a while it has me waking up feeling very solid. Literally, it’s like pushing the reset button and sending me back in time.
I am not really a fan of working out as a means to be healthy. Don’t get me wrong. I think we should lead healthy lifestyles. But I do believe that simply doing physical work and specifically getting outside to do it is a little more honest about being alive. Working out with weights is kind of a phony affair. I don’t have a mirror in here to look at but it is more about self love. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Our bodies seem to be built to give our hands access to our genitals easily enough to make masturbation one of everybody’s favorite hobbies.
Still, it is much better to have fresh blood flowing throughout your body than not. Fresh blood with fresh oxygen is the food of our physical selves as much as the nutrition we take in through eating. You’ve got to move it around or the garbage piles up. If you know what it feels like to be denied physical activity for a long time and then suddenly get some fresh air, you know how addictive it can be. You can ask my ex partner about that. They only let her go one day a week and by the time she gets here, she never wants to stop moving.
I do not have any major plans for today. I sent off my letter of complaint to the ministry of health yesterday. I cannot know their response until they respond. One thing I can be very sure of is that they will not respond very quickly or care very much. It is not going to inspire an immediate investigation. At best they will just shuffle the cards of bureaucracy for a while and decide to do nothing. If the ball even begins to get rolling, the odds are that nothing will happen. Still, I’ve said my peace and I’ve told the truth. Even if they just make this little piece of electronic fluff go away and slide it into the electronic trash can, I’ve done my job. And of course my situation is exactly the same as yesterday and the day before and the day before. No relief is coming to me.
If the weather is truly going to drop into the freezing territory, it might be a good time to pull the trigger on moving the computer out of the office. To be honest, there’s not really that much difference between my notebook and the big computer. One allows me to sit at a desk in a well-lit room surrounded by walnuts and the other has me floor sitting and working with slightly smaller screens. I think the speed of the PC is much faster and the internet connection is a touch better. But it’s not absolutely necessary to move the machine in here. The only issue is that once it gets cold, the office becomes an ice box and sitting in there is just simply not practical.
I also played guitar last night. I have been playing lately but I picked up the guitar and had a pretty interesting workout. I’ve been having problems with my left hand this year. All of the stick work I employed at the beginning of the spring seems to have given me problems. But I still have some chops and I’ve been playing for 40 years so it’s not like there’s nothing to go to. Believe it or not, playing guitar is also a bit of a physical workout. I know that 99% of your body is just sitting in one place but it also generates some heat. It generates heat because of the finger movement and the Brain movement and it forces you to use energy. All of this builds a bit of a fire.
I know I’m worrying ahead of the temperature change. This is simple neurosis. This is worry. This is bothering myself about things in advance. There’s nothing wrong with planning but once you get into the soup it’s a lot different. This is probably the main reason for the problems of the world that we have. Too many decisions being made from a bunker. There are too many at large decisions being made by people who have no physical understanding of the reality that they are making decisions for. Too many architects and engineers and millionaires and not enough workers.
You can eat something hot, you can drink something hot, you can get up and move around or exercise or you can burn more resources. This is how you stay warm. Yesterday when I spent time in the office, I moved my electric teapot in there and changed from my favorite railroad glass to a Japanese shot glass for my green tea. Moving that into the warm room is easy enough. I have enough electricity in here easily to add that little comfort in here. That means at least the availability of tea, nuts and oatmeal without even having to leave in the room. I don’t like eating in here but still, if it’s a matter of battling the frost, you might as well do it in style.
One thing I think I will do today is take the clippers and cut back most of my mint bush. Mint is a perennial and an aggressive one. It will come back in the spring. It is Frost tolerant but the plant itself will die back if I don’t take it anyway. And there is nothing like fresh mint in a cup of tea. It’s also not a bad addition to food to give that slightly fresh taste. I don’t really invest much in sweet things but having mint leaves available is a definite pleasure in life.
About the only other thing personally worth worrying about is that I have said no to two women lately. Both were money requests, surprise surprise. Lana has called me at least once a day this week but I haven’t really had a particular need. I understand that I am a small time employer and these little money drops mean something to her. I don’t want to say that I’m punishing her because it’s not really the case. It’s just that sometimes she mixes the metaphor a little bit as to whether we are friends or whether she’s in it for the money. Sometimes she prioritizes my requests very low on her list. She starts taking me for granted and I end up suffering and paying for it. At moments like this, I start to wonder as to whether I need her help or whether I’m better off doing the work myself. If I think selfishly even for a moment, just like she does, it seems better to be without than with. It’s a delicate balancing act but I guess keeping things in balance is exactly my job.
I also have said no to a request from my ex partner to buy some material to cover her rose bushes. She is also thinking a bit paranoid ahead of the frost. This material is normally used to stop light and air from getting to a patch of land. It’s used to kill off weeds and grass in an area that you wish to make a garden out of. I don’t really like bringing plastic onto my territory and I don’t believe in the benefits of plastic farming. It is possible that I will make some hoop houses in some of our garden boxes next year. But I will do this out of material that is already here rather than bringing new material in.
The other two problems with this is that it’s a snap decision rather than something that was discussed a long time ago. She understands a frost is coming and she wants to do something very quickly to fix it. I’m not doing any snap purchases like this. First of all, we can’t plant anything that is not Frost tolerant because the main philosophy of this place is not going to be becoming slaves to annuals. I want my garden to be as much as 90% perennial. I don’t mind minor upkeep but I do not want to be slaves to the process. I am not here to amuse myself, I’m here to live in a place I like living in and to me, it’s part of living sustainably to have a living architecture that understands where it is. Planting annuals is a disruption of nature. I would rather have as much perennial food as possible lying around so that the place can develop and be what it’s supposed to be.
I don’t really want to say anything negative about my ex partner and I don’t feel good when I have to say no to something. There is a difference between taking care of this place as a weekend warrior and living here everyday. I’m not under thinking the fact that I was not physically capable of doing a lot of the work this year and she carried out her tasks in the garden as well as she could. She was the lifeblood of this place this year and I certainly hope we at least keep to the same schedule next year. I just don’t really want to have that much responsibility and I want to have an idea in my mind that at some point, the place will just take care of itself and grow naturally and I will be able to just do what is necessary to maintain equilibrium. I like that thought a lot better than I like coming in in the spring and stealing a plot of land.
Or basically said, I wish to work with nature rather than fight against it. Perhaps this is romantic thinking on my part but I like romance. I also love nature and would much prefer to sit back and see things happen and be awed by the experience than to be stuck slaving for a few bullshit vegetables that literally everyone around me grows like religion and I can pick up for pennies or even gifts. I do not need to prove to my neighbors that I am a better Nazi than they are. I prefer to be with nature rather than keep a sadomasochistic relationship with it.
All of these are wonderful words but it also means I have two women angry at me. Probably three or four if I start thinking about it. Actually, if I really start thinking about how many women like me at the moment and how many women don’t, I come up with an interesting mathematics. The truth is, none of them give a flying crap about me except in moments of pity or personal desire that crosses my property. Go ahead and hate me for my pragmatic view of life but I’m not a teenager. I’ve ridden this roller coaster many times. I think I can handle saying no. I can handle the repercussions.
But perhaps today is a good day for a bike ride. Today is a good day to get the bike up and oiled. Riding in the frost is not a terrible thing. It is a lot better ride in the winter time when you have access to a warm shower to come home to. This is something I don’t have unfortunately. However, if it’s a matter of moving the blood along and we are only talking about a ride to the store or in the local neighborhood, my legs need it. And it’s more economical than paying the delivery costs.
That delivery service that came and went has come back again. I thought for a minute that the disappearing game was just to get people to buy one giant purchase before they left but this is not the case. They have reorganized and have stopped a lot of the fresh food delivery that made them a worthwhile purchase. This new wild berries service has them crushed in this. If all you can buy is dried food, the amount of things that you can purchase is not even countable. The delivery service is a bit finicky and you have to leave yourself a week or at least I do out in the regions. But the quality is better and the selection is better and they offer things in bulk that are not available in the local service so I’m not even sure I need them anymore.
Is this a lot of blah blah blah? It probably is. I guess this is why I am calling it quits in a couple of days. It’s not an organic stop. This was the schedule. But it seems natural to quit here. Even if the war is just getting hot, I am not really the news source or the journalist. I’m just talking about how things affect this little region. Perhaps there is some universality in how my little corner of the world relates to each other and how this is the same universally for humanity. We are all under the same conservative oppression and we are all bound by economic slavery. But I don’t think anyone dies if I stop writing words suddenly. And besides, everybody needs a vacation.
***
I’m only posting this video here because I have been an English teacher for two decades and I am a believer that language and practical conversation is the salvation and only future for our planet. Here is Zelensky meeting with the foreign minister from the Netherlands. It’s a lot of polite conversation and the ceremonial fluff to be sure. But perhaps the best takeaway from this for my Russian friends is that if you have the capacity to speak English, you have a very wide life potentially available to you and if you only speak Russian, well, you’re kind of stuck with the Russians.
The largest part of Russian propaganda over the last few years has been telling people to just allow the Russians to take care of them. Russian is all you need is what they say. Maybe this is the easy out for lazy people. I prefer people who are a little less lazy and a little more capable between the ears. I prefer not to be in the company of parasites whenever possible.
***
Great women fighting Christian hypocrisy.
This has nothing to do with food or the war or my life at all but I just found this clip concerning the prime minister of Finland. Apparently she got some yellow press and someone leaked photos of her enjoying her life with friends. Her response is perfect. This is one of the reasons we probably should have had a younger president for the United States and the Conservative Christian Monopoly should not have been allowed to over control the elections generally. Modern thinking probably could have prevented this bloody fucking war from happening in the first place. Perhaps it really is time to move on from archaic thinking.
Also this from a community meeting in Tennessee condemning what is apparently a small group of homosexuals getting suppressed officially simply because… well, because they are homosexuals. Here is Jesse Graham standing up and telling it like it is or at least how it should be. Christian hypocrisy.
This from the war about women stepping up and doing their jobs to make sure things run right.
Even this from the war just in case you were wondering if it’s possible.
I think we should let AOC close this segment with some words of wisdom on the subject. Sometimes even people of Faith have their heads screwed on correctly. It would be in the best interest of the US for us to recognize this particular singular talent. She and those like her really should be the future.
Or better, perhaps we should look to the world’s Jean d’Ark for some wisdom and some guidance. Here is finally a full speech from Greta Thornburg from only a couple of weeks ago at the Southbank Center, a hub for original thought from intellectuals and the performing arts in London.
***
It’s about 3:15 in the afternoon and I’m just waiting for the garbage truck to arrive. I really don’t have so much garbage. I have one bag, a plastic bag, and it’s filled with other plastic bags. This is the only garbage that we make here and it only comes when I order food or buy something at the store. If I eat my own food or something that I’m smart enough to buy in bulk, I don’t need the plastic. Everything else that is garbage is biodegradable and can be composted or burned and causes no harm whatsoever.
The discussion over what to do with the plants got solved because my ex partner went to the market and spoke to the grandmothers there. They told her something. I’m not sure exactly what they told her because what she has already done seems to be something they agree with. But knowing my ex partner, instead of just asking, she probably explained what she had done and then they agreed with her. You never can tell about women. They are very supportive that way.
In any case, I was basically freed from the necessity to travel into the forest and pick up another load of leaves. We have already used Forest leaves as a very excellent mulch in a lot of places. If the leaves are wet, you can just throw them down in bundles and because I’m next to the forest, I have an unlimited supply. If it’s dry, all that’s necessary is to toss a bit of dirt on top of it to hold it in place.
Right there at the end of the previous paragraph the garbage truck came. My henpecked neighbor and I were the only ones throwing out garbage. There was my single green bag of plastic and he had three entire potato bags of shit to throw away. That’s par for the course. I’ve never seen those fascists do anything that seemed to make them conscientious. I don’t know which great philosopher said it or from what era it came from but I seem to remember someone saying the magic words that pigs be pigs. Truer words, truer words…
Lena made a brief appearance here and we came to an understanding. Basically, I got the clue that she had absolutely no money. She came over and did a bit of cleaning for me. It was probably needed. The floor in the kitchen looks much better and the house generally has that feel to it. I don’t mean to be sexist but although I like a neat and tidy house, I have no idea whatsoever for aesthetics. I like a house that functions and where everything is exactly where it’s supposed to be but it doesn’t have that female shine to it. It doesn’t have that visual appeal or that sense of truly being clean. I guess those are more true words.
Other than that, the only interesting thing that happened today was a medical examiner called and came by to tell me that I needed to follow up with a blood test. The test, I only learned later, was for the prostate specific antigen(PSA). I was told that men of my age need to be careful of this and so I was invited sometime in the future to have this test made. I’m not completely aware of prostate problems. I don’t think I have a problem with my prostate but better safe than sorry.
How do you know if you have a problem prostate?
Pain or burning sensation when urinating (dysuria) Difficulty urinating, such as dribbling or hesitant urination. Frequent urination, particularly at night (nocturia) Urgent need to urinate.
Well, I wouldn’t say that’s exactly me but I wouldn’t say that I’m immune to those symptoms. Probably a good idea to have this checked out. This is a plus for the medical health department of the Republic of Belarus. Thank you for the follow-up. I will be there.
I had one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had this morning. I went into the root cellar and tried some of the potatoes that my neighbors grew. This was specifically the bag that Lena bartered for me. I got yelled at for over paying but still it was a pretty good looking bag of potatoes. And breakfast was absolutely lovely. The potatoes were fresh and delicious. Definitely of the highest sort. I added some red lentils and some veggies to the cooking process. I started with a little bit of oil in the pot to start the aromatics and put some color and flavor into the potatoes and then doused it with water to get the fond and quickly cook the lentils. For spice, I used some salt, pepper and a very hot chili pepper and hand ground all of it in my mortar. I also topped it off at the end with a few sprinkles of whole grain flour. This simply for the magic of it all. No complaints whatsoever. Absolutely delicious and creamy.
I also had some tea afterwards. This was some green tea that I’ve had in a jar for a long time but also a few leaves from the new bushes we planted last weekend and also some fresh mint. I had a few walnuts with the tea just for good measure. Bloody delicious. Absolutely fantastic and feeling and satisfying. I have been in an absolute dream all day., No pressure whatsoever, no debt and no worries except for tomorrow’s Frost. And even that I’m not particularly worried about because most probably, I’m going to have the same day tomorrow that I’m having today except for possibly one more layer of clothes. I got this.
***
Okay, just a little more because I just love this 1420 interview. What other countries should be sanitized of Nazis? Ask a good question of Russians and get great answers.
But what happens to the Ukrainians who are forced into Russian deportations? This unfortunate story is carried by RFE/RL.
But let’s say we straight up agree to hell with the Russians generally. We don’t need their problems and we don’t need their oil. What next? Well, how about hybrid non-chain drive E-bikes?
What is the ratio of times you get in your car to drive less than 20 km? I would tend to believe that more than 90% of the time you ever touch your car it is for a short ride where you need to carry a small amount of cargo. Maybe something like this is exactly for you.
Need more vehicles? Have small kids? While most electric vehicles start out at a minimum of $25,000, check out the Hong Guang Mini EV which can be had, if you can find it, for about $5000.
Not all electric cars are expensive, as China’s new favourite zero-emission vehicle is proving.
The Hong Guang Mini EV has recently become the nation’s best-selling EV, with the super-compact electric model costing from just £3,200 new.
The car, which is produced as part of a joint venture between state-owned SAIC Motor (known locally as Wuling) and American firm GM Motors, is less than three metres long, seats four people, has a claimed range of 106 miles and can be charged from a 240V mains socket.
Does that sound good to you? That definitely sounds good to me. I mean, if you’re financing a car and your obligation with only a couple of hundred dollars a month and you can power it off your existing home electricity, I say we have a winner.
India also has a car for about $6000 from PMV called the EaS-E.
The PMV EaS-E will be offered in three variants, with the claimed range varying from 120 km to 200 km per charge, depending on the variant. It is claimed to be fully charged in just under 4 hours with its 3 kW AC charger. This micro electric car will measure 2,915 mm in length, 1,157 mm in width, and 1,600 mm in height. It will have a wheelbase of 2,087 mm while the ground clearance will stand at 170 mm. Also, the kerb weight of the EV will be around 550 kg. In terms of features, PMV Electric says that the EaS-E will get a digital infotainment system, a USB charging port, air conditioning, remote keyless entry and remote park assist, cruise control, seat belts, etc. The starting price of EaS-E is expected to be between Rs4,00,000 to Rs.5,00,000.
Or basically what I’m saying is that it is quite possible to fight this war without having to be a millionaire. And in fact, if it’s more important to go somewhere and do what you need to do than to worry about what other people think about you or to impress people with your monstrous sexual attitude, it seems that they have created the new Volkswagen beetle, a car for the masses that does not require allegiance to the Russian empire just to get around town.
Personally, I vote for the e-bike. I like to go It alone. I understand it if you’ve got kids. Anyway, here’s my best idea for the moment.
***
Well, I don’t know what really else I’m supposed to say. Today has been a good day. Not a lot of stress. Not a lot of anything really. They say the cold is coming tomorrow, even by tomorrow morning. Perhaps we will even have the first snow of the year. I don’t mind this place in the snow. It’s not really that horrible because the walking paths that I take end up being walking past in the snow. It’s not like there’s a ton of hardship. The only thing that’s important is to keep warm and keep busy in some way that’s not too bothersome. I’m looking forward to it.
I just went outside for a bit. Truthfully, I had a piss. The stars are out and as always they are ridiculously beautiful to look at. The weather report says that we are at 3° but frankly, I don’t feel it. Maybe my body has adjusted already. In my experience, the only painful temperature is anything below freezing. Our bodies are mostly water and freezing means freezing to all water-based things. When you get below zero is when things get real.
But my thinking about the snow is about the same thing as what I noticed during the course of this year. I know it has been raining a lot over the last month and a half or so. Every morning the ground is wet and some mornings everything is a beautiful white Frosty color. But I’m thinking we are not going to get the planned precipitation. Something tells me that all of the pollution will just keep screwing up the ecosystem and it will be as hard to get snow as it was to get rain.
I just got a message back from the government. For some reason, my appeal was sent to the president’s office. I didn’t think I was doing that. I thought I was sending it to the ministry of health. But for some reason they sent me a form letter saying that they couldn’t help me but they would send along my letter to the proper ministry. My ex partner says that this is a lucky sign. She says they have two weeks to answer. During our conversation, I explained several fantasies I had of my bureaucrat being hauled away in chains and so forth. I don’t really believe in this. I still have an American passport and they never do manage to arrest Donald Trump. It’s still a conservative country so I’m sure blackmail is pretty normal in the bureaucrat class.
I also got a note from my new student. She is proud that she has done her homework. I said some nice words and that I would see her tomorrow. I talked to her mom today and everybody seems happy so far. I warned her about the honeymoon phase. But they don’t want to think about that. They are probably right and it’s best to stay optimistic as long as possible.
Tomorrow we get to read some Torah and maybe I get one more delivery from my favorite service. Maybe I’ll even get a bike ride in. I don’t have to go anywhere and I don’t have to do anything but if the temperature does get down below zero, maybe a bike ride will be appreciated. Just something to get some air in my lungs and move the blood around a bit. I know it’s not a lot to look forward to. But I’m not convinced life needs a lot to be okay. The little things are fine.
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