NeuroTypical

Holy crap! Here's my power/gas averages for the last few years, for a single family in a home here in Colorado. (It's an annual average of the monthly bills.) The electric bump over the last year is due to having another structure to heat. The gas increases were not due to anything we did. I'd also get periodic notices that my home used more energy than the average, but never any threats. Just an offer to do a free energy audit to see where the air leaks are, and suggest some fixes.

Yep, powerful and sobering. A worthy way to spent 10 minutes. Did Peterson coin the term "anti-truth"? I first heard it from him. Very interesting term - sort of like the intellectual secular version of anti-Christ.

This shows the changing value of retirement savings for Mr. and Mrs. Typical. Vertical bars indicate presidential election. For the first time since I started keeping track in 2007, that value has gone DOWN under any president. Yeesh.

I'm gratified to see some of the younger generation starting to realize that some folks are just plain pushing the social agenda a bit too hard. The latest meme:

Tips for what? How to spot/avoid them? How to change their opinions about things? I haven't been preached to by a born again person in a couple decades. But I did have an immensely enjoyable 3 hour long conversation with an atheist last month. Both of us talking 100 miles an hour, totally respectful. We managed to solve pretty much all of the world's problems in that conversation, but neither of us budged a single inch on our beliefs about God.

She made a great Kai Wynn.

First priority: I should be able to clip my fingernails and have moles and warts and tumors and parasites removed. Bodily autonomy is a core foundation of liberty and freedom. Also First priority: Human beings, especially the weak and defenseless ones, must be protected by society and law. Humans get equal protection under the law - also a core foundation of liberty and freedom. So when does the reproductive cycle create a human, deserving of equal protection under the law? Pretty much nobody advocates extending the status of personhood to a sperm, or an egg. Few believe a fertilized egg or multicelled blastocyst is a human. As the thing grows and matures, more and more people cross the "okay it's a person now" line. Every stage crossed, brings more and more into the "it's a person" camp: A beating heart, the ability to feel pain, brain activity, indications of having a sleep pattern, reactions that indicate familiarity to certain sounds. By the time of viability (the ability to survive outside the womb), pretty much everyone has joined the camp. You can find some, here and there, who believe a woman should have a right to abort her born and independently living child, but probably in similar numbers as those who believe spilling seed is mass murder. There should be room for exceptions, like the 14 year old who escapes from her evil father, in the 3rd trimester carrying his child, a child that will not survive for long and will likely kill the mother during birth. God drops hints that can be interpreted in various ways. He doesn't settle the matter for us. The church does what it always does in the lack of clear and unambiguous revelation - it's best. In such a situation, it makes sense to let the states (or the people), make up their own minds. Folks of similar views can go live amongst others of similar stripes, if it's that important to them. So let Cali and Colorado be on the late end of things, and let Georgia and Mississippi be on the early end of things, and everyone else can argue about weeks, and yell in all caps, and crowbar as much emotion or reason into their arguments as they wish. And they can vote in their states, and the strongest voices will win in that state. And folks can argue about jumping states for abortions. That's better than the federal government telling everyone what to do.

I haven't been to a BYU basketball game in, well, ever. But do the opposing fans still hold up large banners/posters of girls in bikinis behind the basket, when a BYU player is trying to make free throws? Because that appeared to be all the rage in the '90's (when I last payed attention).

I'm glad you're documenting your progress through this thing here, @MrShorty. Good luck, and keep us up to date!

I try hard to keep both of those in my heart, mind, and actions. I find the first one is easier than the 2nd. I've long thought that inherent in the 2nd, is a rather hidden commandment that we've got to love ourselves too. That's got to be part of the deal, because there are no shortage of people who hate themselves, and the 2nd great commandment is not a free pass to do harm to folks.

That's because you never saw my bumper sticker:

I've gotten a huge kick out of various fandom creations (the innocent kind, not the "adult content" kind) since the '90's. My earliest forays onto online communities were the old usenet groups. Plenty of Star Trek fan fiction to go around. One was so memorable I snuck into my high-school's computer lab to print it out: A crossover between ST:TNG and The Muppet Show . Miss Piggy exchanging flirty lines at the dance with a disinterested and uncomfortable Riker - absolute gold. I've followed probably a hundred or more aspiring artists/authors/music writers that basically create stuff in existing franchises. On occasion, one of them gets good enough at it, they earn a Cease and Desist letter from the IP owners. It's like a badge of honor for an aspiring artist to get contacted by Disney's lawyers demanding they knock it off. Anyway, I hear @mirkwood and @LDSGator like to cosplay as Abba at comicons.

Fascinating - I'd never thought about it before. Well, I just today learned there's a difference between an allegory and a parable, so I'mma watch what people have to say here and learn for a bit, if that's ok.

Well, yours looks like what that doe-eyed whatsername was looking at, so we're even.

Huh. It's been a while since I found a good old scary Book Revelation End Times thing showing up in the news. The 2020 fires were interesting too.

Well, I became the first. Some YT vids allow a count of likes and dislikes, but when you don't see a number, it's because they've blocked the count display. @Still_Small_Voice's analysis is relevant: 1.2% of the people who have viewed the video hit like. BTW, The works of A.A. Milne entered the public domain last year. That's why this movie is happening now. If someone wanted, they could produce and sell a movie that shows Tigger getting baptized and eventually becoming an Elder.

Random thing: This week my work is having a (inhales big breath) presentation on Neurodivergent-LGBTQIA+ intersections hosted by a genderfluid presenter who lives in their van with their dog (big exhale). (No really folks, try saying all that in one breath. ) Since COVID, I've learned what all those big words mean, and yes, it was like learning a new language. Anyway, in the presentation notes, I find validation of my existence: Yep - that's the exact, word-for-word thing I had in mind when I chose my username all those years ago. Nice to see my group identity being recognized at work.

I'll bite, what's an intercession, and how does one lead one in your faith?

Cool story: Idaho LDS Church farm donating millions of potatoes, needs volunteers for harvest They tell me the church owns hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land in the US. Good stuff.

I'm grateful for the Queen's decision to remove prince andrew's patronages and military titles, as a result of his abuse of underage Epstein Island girls. Not all mommies have the strength to help provide consequences to their criminal abuser children. Queen Elizabeth II's legacy includes having that strength. That is not a small thing.

Oh no, just "occasional cooking". You get maybe 80 lbs of meat from an antelope. Maybe 2 lbs for a family of 4, and that makes 20 family meals, give or take. We maybe had it weekly, so that's ~5-ish months. I turned lots of breakfast and italian sausage! Breakfast burrito scrambles - Yum!

Good deal, @JohnsonJones. I wish I did more hunting. The antelope I got a decade ago kept us supplied for 6 months of occasional cooking. Wife and kids raise turkeys/chickens/geese. We've all got our eye on the big angry goose who hates us. We call him "big mad". There will be no love lost when he's on our plate. But behind all the talk, I think we have that respect and gratitude you mention.

Just out of curiosity, are you a pre-comma or a post-comma meat eater?

I'm missing what you're asking us to consider. Are you wondering if we can eat tea leaves and not have it be a violation of the word of wisdom?

If you're interested in kids, something to ponder: If you cannot both agree before marriage on what core truths and beliefs will be taught, expect to see those differences waging war in your children as they grow. You will find reason to mourn such division and lost paths. For each kid, at least one parent will "lose". Possibly both parents, but no fewer than one. Can it still be worth it? Dunno. Folks who have told me stories tell a mixed bag of them. From what I've personally heard, divorce or dead marriages are more common than happy-ever-after stories. But both exist.