Ironhold

Probably. If memory serves, that's the default option, you not being able to get private messages. I chose to turn them on so that I could communicate with various people in private, and it's been a bit of a cursed gift since.

There was an era where I wasn't watching wrestling. I was burned out on how ridiculous WWE had gotten during the latter parts of the Attitude era, the first I heard of TNA was when I saw some collectible mini-figures in Toys R Us, and nobody locally was carrying any of the other promotions like CMLL or Ring of Honor. I basically only came back into wrestling when I found out about AEW getting a TV deal, and found it to be far more interesting than the handful of WWE programs I'd tried to watch in the intervening years.

I had a mystery illness in February 2021 that lasted for less than a week. It came on about 36 hours after the blizzard in which we lost power for several days, and so at first there was a concern that I was suffering from something relating to smoke inhalation given that we had the fireplace going 24/7 during that time and I willingly chose to stay indoors for the bulk of it; I'd already had three serious slip & fall events before the blackout happened, each of which was frighteningly worrisome given that I have busted vertebrae. It came on suddenly while I was at work Thursday evening, leaving me feeling rather low and trying to make sense of the confused signals my body was sending off. I powered through the deliveries that night with help from my parents, then took it low and slow for a few days while I healed. I had a round of stomach trouble that weekend, and I was sensitive to how much salt was in my food for a few days, but by the time I had to go back to work Monday evening I was more or less back on my feet. I don't know what it is, but that was the last of that. I got the Moderna shots in July, after this incident. That being said, dad came down with something a day or two after I came down with whatever that was, and it left him bedridden for the better part of three weeks, to the point that I had to physically lift him in and out of bed even while I was sick and even had to give him a blessing. Between how long he was down, the fact that he was obsessed with getting only certain things to eat, and that he had a long time in recovering his stamina, mom is convinced he and I both somehow had Covid. This is a big part of why she raised such a fuss about the two of us getting vaccinated and why she threatened to prevent me from going to that once-in-a-lifetime event unless I got vaxxed.* ...Never mind the fact that by all appearances it seems that the Moderna shot might have done more damage to me long-term than whatever that mystery illness was... *There's an annual Comic-Con in my area, about 45 minutes out from where I live. A childhood idol was going to be one of the headline guests in 2021. My car was in no condition to make the drive, and so I'd have needed to borrow the family truck. She basically refused to let me use it, and pushed my dad into also refusing me, until such time as I got the vaccine. I got the Moderna shot, and things were rather unpleasant after that.

It would be in your messages folder. Twitter security is generally enough to stick suspicious messages and invites behind a screen you have to manually lift to get at, but if you've got your account set up so that Twitter can e-mail you with activity notifications your spam filter (et al) will be filling up soon enough.

As I noted earlier, I had a very strong feeling that something wasn't right and that I needed to avoid getting the vaccines. I only got the Moderna shot because it was mandatory for me to have it or else I'd miss a once-in-a-lifetime bucket list type of event. A few months after I got the shot the first *mainstream* reports began emerging that the Moderna vaccine was being investigated for potentially causing cardiovascular side effects in certain demographic groups, and as I've had a number of cardiovascular health events since then tied to my pre-existing arrythmia I'm now wondering if the Moderna shot didn't do something. The person who mandated that I get the shot has tried to apologize to me since then, but between how they phrase it and the life-altering health conditions I'm now dealing with that apology just rings hollow.

Same here actually. Right now, Twitter's shot through with scammers and bots, the result of the scammers having figured out they can abuse the group chat feature to spam multiple people at once. The Twitter staff is trying to keep track of it and handle matters, but it's mostly on the users to keep reporting so the staff can keep banning.

As I've noted before, the controversy and fallout over the Covid vaccines was so extreme that even a lot of people who are otherwise in favor of vaccines wound up cynical and skeptical. When that much trust gets lost in something, it doesn't return overnight. I hate to say it, but we're likely going to be looking at a few more epidemics before society as a whole remembers why we began vaccinations in the first place.

"It's my belief that society needs to periodically test old and new against each other in order to determine which is the best way forward. Sometimes the old ways survived for a reason. Sometimes new is legitimately better. Sometimes both are terrible and another solution is needed. Sometimes both can coexist. Sometimes putting both together makes something superior to the two of them apart. Either way, we can't just arbitrarily accept one or the other." This is my overall mindset, and more than a few people have had fits over it.

I was just reminded that World Wrestling Entertainment has a scheduled program in Riyadh this Saturday. Reports are indicating that production crew members and perhaps office staffers were already in the country to begin setting up the venue, and so it's in the air as to whether or not the show will go on as planned (depressingly likely, as Saudi's government is paying the WWE gobs of money) or if it will be rescheduled somehow.

The paper doesn't pay very much, so I've had to look for ways to have fun on the cheap and make my purchases stretch. For example, the BYU-TV app has a "free on demand" section where you can watch a curated selection of classic BYU-TV programming completely for free, and at one point in time there was even a small amount of their third-party content available as well. This could make for a family activity.

I'm so out of it with everything I've got going IRL that I misread Narbata as "Narnia".

...Except for No Kings SLC, where an innocent bystander was shot and killed by a rather incompetent "security guard" the organizers had hired, the result of the person aiming at a third party who had drawn a weapon and missing.

For a few years now, people have noted that pallets of bricks & cinderblocks magically keep showing up in cities where riots are taking place, with everything being left out in the open so that the rioters can easily get their hands on them. Things like this are a big part of why there are so many conspiracy theories about what's actually ostensibly going on.

Back when I was dealing with online anti-Mormons in the 2000s, I formulated a hypothesis for what I call the "Holy Crusader" mindset. This is a situation where a person becomes so mentally and emotionally invested in whatever they adhere to that they consciously or unconsciously see it as a deity figure, and by extension view themselves as holy warriors in behalf of the cause. Since they see their cause as "good" and themselves as the arbiters of "good", they therefore regard anything that is the opposite of their cause as being inherently "evil". Thus, in their eyes, everything they do is justified as part of the larger battle of good versus evil. This is how we have, say, people claiming to be "anti-fascists" when they themselves are behaving in a fascistic fashion.

*bump* For those who don't know - In the lead-up to Desert Storm, there was a massive spike in pizza deliveries to the Pentagon. There were just that many generals, staffers, and others staying late to work on plans, and so something had to give. Ever since then, people have monitored the amount of pizza consumption at the Pentagon as a barometer for activity levels. I'm hearing claims that pizza parlors nearest to the Pentagon are seeing yet another massive spike in business... If these claims are true, then something's going on.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-the-waymo-car-fires-in-recent-los-angeles-protests-caused-the-robotaxis/ It was Waymo, which branched off of Google a while back. It's my understanding that at least five vehicles were torched before Waymo sent a recall order pulling all units out of the area to protect them. Yes, that article is from Scientific American, which should explain how big a deal it is. And yes, there are various ostensible reports of looting going on, which is part of why I fear we might see a return of the "Rooftop Koreans" or otherwise see vigilante actions. As it is, last night someone made the claim on Twitter that a person was going around to the vehicles driven by protestors and putting pro-Trump stickers on those vehicles in the hopes that it would cause the protestors to torch each other's cars.

I had to explain the term "Rooftop Koreans" to my mom last night. Charter-Spectrum's 24-hour Spectrum News channel has been all over the protests in LA, and as we have our cable service via Spectrum the channel is our default whenever we turn the cable box on. This is what mom was watching yesterday to find out more information, and we started talking. I mentioned that term as part of my concern about what locals may or may not eventually do, and things went from there. edit - For those who don't know, during the Rodney King riots, various leaders in the Korean district organized militias in order to defend the region. This included armed individuals being posted on the rooftops of select buildings. A photo of one such would-be sharpshooter went the 90s equivalent of viral, and has since been rediscovered by the internet.

It also varies from person to person as to why they choose to grow facial hair. In my case, when I was in junior high there were two other students who had similar appearances to me, such that teachers often confused us if we were in the same class. When I got to high school I discovered that the student handbook allowed us to have mustaches, and so I let mine grow out, much to the chagrin of my mom, who did everything possible to try and get me to shave it off. Once it was grown out, the three of us were never again confused for one another. I've since allowed the mustache to grow into a full Van Dyke - style number, and I've also begun sporting mutton chops as with my high blood pressure there are certain parts of my face to where if I tag myself while shaving it takes a prolonged period for the bleeding to stop. I use an electric razor to keep my facial hair trimmed, and a disposable to remove what hair I don't want as part of my style.

From what I understand, this is an act that is *consciously avoided* unless absolutely, essentially necessary owing to the dire nature of the punishment that can befall a person or community so denounced even before judgement.

"This program is brought to you by Travolta - brand vehicle lubricants. When you think 'grease', think 'Travolta'."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyla_Rose All Elite Wrestling's roster includes Nyla Rose, a male - to - female transgender wrestler; Rose is on record as the first transgender wrestler to ever sign with a major professional wrestling promotion. When AEW first debuted on television, Rose was very quickly established as the biggest and strongest person on their women's roster, to the point of literally being able to throw some of the other roster members around like metaphorical rag dolls. However, Rose had many of the same flaws that larger wrestlers of either gender have: in addition to being slow and clumsy compared to a lot of the lighter wrestlers, Rose also couldn't get up onto the ring ropes to do aerial moves of any kind. This led to a rather famous matchup in which tiny little Riho, a Japanese wrestler who might as well be a Maine Coon kitty for how small she is, ran rings around Rose and repeatedly managed to slip out of every submission hold Rose attempted just by being too small for Rose to get a proper hold on. It would take a few years for Rose to develop enough in-ring skill to start compensating for these flaws, and by then AEW had another issue to face: the state of Oklahoma. Oklahoma prohibits mixed-gender matches, and under Oklahoma state law male - to - female athletes are considered legally male. When AEW did a show in Oklahoma they had Rose booked against a female wrestler, and a local promotion NARC'd on them as part of a misguided turf battle. The state let AEW off with a warning due to a technicality, but AEW hasn't done a show in Oklahoma since. In this situation, the sport of professional wrestling, we thus have proof that it comes down to the athletic ability and training of the individual athletes. If the match is booked as a "hoss fight" between big sluggers, it's only logical that the script would eventually call for Rose to win unless AEW is *really* trying to sell whoever Rose is up against. But if it's Rose versus someone light and nimble, someone who is much faster but also much more fragile, then it would come down to what story the writers are trying to tell as to who is scripted to win. Again though, professional wrestling is generally scripted to at least some degree, with the winners typically predetermined well in advance.

"I'd rather a polygamist who doesn't polyg than a monogamist who doesn't monog." - Senator Boies Penrose, in response to the fact that many of the politicians so adamant about keeping B. H. Roberts (?) out of office were known adulterers.

"Hard times create hard men. Hard men create soft times. Soft times create soft men. Soft men create hard times." People who have experienced hardship and adversity generally do not want others to experience what they have experienced. As a result, if given the chance they'll do what they can to make things easier for those that come after them. However, if they make it too easy, and if they do too good a job of protecting the next generation, that generation can grow up without an understanding of what the situation they enjoy cost the previous generation, what it takes to maintain that situation, or what "hardship" actually entails. As we've seen so often in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and so forth, when a generation reaches the point that they take what they have for granted or get offended by things other generations bore with patience, it's only a matter of time before the society collapses. Now, are we in a down point? That depends upon who you talk to. Ask one group of people and they'll scream about how anyone to the right of Chairman Mao is a "Nazi" and should be brutally murdered in the streets. Ask another group of people and they'll scream about how anyone to the left of Robert E. Lee is a "communist" who should be brutally murdered in the streets. Et cetera. In many ways, we're doing better than in other generations. For example, our modern methods of communication allow for us to more readily share information and ideas. But in other ways, we're in a critical period of time. For example, we've got people running around who talk about how awesome they'd be if they were back in 1945 yet are so weak of body, weak of mind, weak of character, or some combination thereof that they wouldn't have lasted a week in 1985. As a nation, we need another Great Enlightenment, one that's focused on teaching classical values and getting people to step outside of their personal bubbles so they can gain a broader set of experiences and a better understanding of one another.

Actually... they kinda did. If you look at the world of popular music, you'll see a great many examples of the Ship of Theseus question in action, including the "two competing ships" aspect. Some bands find themselves in a situation to where they shift the line-up a bit, and this changes things up enough that they decide to completely reform themselves. This is how, for example, we have The Yardbirds -> The New Yardbirds -> Led Zepplin, or Joy Division -> New Order. Other bands experience significant lineup changes, but because there's still at least one single member in the mix there's continuity and so they keep using the same name. Examples include Whitesnake (David Coverdale), Rainbow (Richie Blackmore), and Loudness (Akira Takasaki). Meanwhile, we have "hired guns" like Doug Aldrich who can regularly find work with other musicians on their projects and as members of other groups in addition to their own individual efforts. Then, however, we have bands to where there are no original members left, but some mechanism is allowing the band to persist. For example, boy band Menudo actually had a policy in place where members would be forcibly expelled from the band upon turning 16. Or we have Lynyrd Skynyrd, where the death of Gary Rossington has resulted in the band having no original members left. We've also got situations to where members of the same band recruited new line-ups and toured opposite each other. For example, Judas Priest members KK Downing and Ripper Owens forming rival group K.K.'s Priest, or Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony forming The Other Half as a counterprogram for Van Halen. Yes, these situations can and will wind up in court, such as when the surviving members of the band RATT went to court in order to determine which band member had legal right to use the name; if memory serves, this was triggered by Juan Croucier and Bobby Blotzer both touring at the same time under the name. We've also had "imposter" bands where musicians formed or were assembled to impersonate existing groups. The Zombies and Fleetwood Mac are among the two groups that unscrupulous promoters / managers have produced imposters of. So yes, there is in fact a real-life application for the Ship of Theseus conundrum.

A number of sports teams and entertainment-related companies are still making the switch, but it is indeed far less than before. Likewise, those stores that are carrying pride-themed merchandise have been stocking smaller quantities than before. That being said, I'm starting to see individual companies recognize that June is *also* Men's Mental Health Awareness Month, with the crew behind the video game Rainbow Six Siege even making a major posting about it on social media as part of an honest, legit campaign - As you can imagine, the fact that people are pushing to acknowledge this has led to scattered reports of pride month supporters being outraged in the mistaken belief that this is somehow crowding out discussion of pride month, with one report alleging that the moderators for a Reddit forum dedicated to a *different* game banned someone for mentioning it. I don't think that pride month will completely go away, but I would imagine that in a few years it will be functionally irrelevant beyond a few performative references and merchandise releases.