I have sufferef from bad insomnia my whole life. On a good night, I would lay in bed for a couple hours with my eyes closed trying to fall asleep. On a bad night, I’d lay like that until my alarm went off in the morning, and then I’d get up, shower, and go to work. That (not sleeping at all) would happen at least once a week for years.

I tried a lot of things. I tried prescription meds. They didn’t work. I tried booze. No luck.

On Reddit about 10 years ago I came across a post about a podcast. The Sleep With Me Poscast.

It doesn’t work for everyone, but it was like a miracle for me. The guy running the podcast is so incredibly boring and the episodes are so unbelievably meaningless that I could actually feel myself falling asleep while trying to follow his meandering stories.

When I first started listening, I’d play one episode, but then when the episode ended, I’d wake up. Then I started setting it to play all episodes without stopping, but then I’d sleep through my alarm. I finally had to set a sleep timer to stop the podcast a minute or two before my alarm.

If it was any other country but the US, we’d already be facing sanctions at least.

Everyone else is already complicit.

That’s a good one!

The guinea pigs, Rose and Daisy, are chill. Here’s a picture of Rose in their Christmas hidey this morning.

Leo, the poodle, was having a good day today.

He was found abandoned in Mississippi. Based on his age and where he was found, we’re fairly sure the little bit of flurries we had yesterday was his first snow. We think he’s having a tough time wrapping his mind around winter in Pennsylvania.

For the past few days, he’s been avoiding going potty outside. My theory is that he thinks he can wait until there’s a warmer day. He managed to empty out today, so he’s been a little lighter (in mood if not merely in digestion).

Here’s a picture of Leo:

And, to complete the pictures, here’s Daisy:

First: They might have a mortgage. They might be struggling to pay the mortgage. Mortgage gets paid first. They might have made the calculation that they had to pay the mortgage and rely on charity to avoid starving.

Second: They might have a mortgage that is already in default. They could be approaching foreclosure. Struggling perhaps more than you imagine.

Third. They might rent. They might be facing eviction. They might be barely surviving.

Fourth: They might already be homeless. Lucky I guess. They don’t have to worry about a mortgage or rent anymore.

Those are just the thoughts I could come up with right now.

Also, this is America. A medical emergency can leave you with nothing.

They shouldn’t, but they can.

It’s a really bad idea for them to do so.

It seems so strange to me that you’re focused on straps and ignoring the heels. There’s nothing about either of those shoes that make any sense.

Certainly not our government.

Can’t she just fuck off already?

Breathalyzers are for if you want to find out if someone is actually intoxicated.

Field sobriety tests are for when you want to arrest someone who isn’t intoxicated.

I don’t call my parents by their first names. Neither do my siblings.

My kids also use “mom” and “dad”, and we also use “mom” or “dad” when referring to each other parent to the kids.

My wife would call her dad by his first name, but only when she was calling him out for being goofy. In response to a dad joke, for example.

Personally, I don’t consider it a nickname. More like a title that I’ve earned. It’s like calling someone “doctor”. If my kids used my first name, I’d probably give them a raised eyebrow in response.

I’ve seen my rates decrease automatically when a driver on the insurance reaches a particular age. Usually there’s a notice sent.

The administration has had a similar impact on most of the country.

Since last Friday, our boiler has been only starting intermittently. Temperature in the house on most days dropped down below 59° F.

We got the bad ignition control replaced this morning. Now we can go back to the normal state of being just a bit too cool to be comfortable.

Yeah, it was a bullshit analogy.

Just like yours.

I thought that’s what we were doing.

Taiwan is a representative democracy now, not a dictatorship.

I think a slightly better analogy, if you’re serious, would be the relationship of the U.S. and Cuba (to make you feel better, I’ll go along with your propaganda and pretend that the U.S. is the only bad guy in the world).

So, China and Taiwan are like if the U.S. tried to control Cuba and failed, and then some other country from the other side of the world (just for example, let’s suggest it was Russia), stepped in to prop up and protect Cuba.

So, can you see how maybe what would be best for everyone is that the Cubans should get to decide on their own how they are governed? Much like the people of Taiwan, through their representative democracy, should be able to tell China to piss off already.

I disagree.

A broken pencil can be sharpened.

Disappointing.

I would expect a sign in a library to say, “No fellatio in the library.”

That’s funny. I’m 55 and the reason I’m pro-palestine is the American doctors working there who reported that they worked on babies that were intentionally shot.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/859/chaos-graph

Out of the 53 American medical workers surveyed who did emergency care for children in Gaza, 44 said they saw kids shot in the head or chest. Here’s Mark.

Mark Perlmutter

83% said they saw a child who was shot in the chest or head-- 83%. So it’s not just my finding.

Ike Sriskandarajah

Could you describe that moment when you saw just how many?

Mark Perlmutter

Oh, I cried. Yeah, because it gave a number to the tragedy.

Ike Sriskandarajah

Feroze published an op ed in the New York Times with the results of the survey. A group of the doctors wrote two letters to then President Biden outlining what they saw. Feroze thought that would mean two things-- they’d get a call from the White House and there’d be an investigation.

Which is, of course, the reason there could be no survivors.