Lots of us are feeling down and sad today for pretty good reasons. There's something to be said for feeling your feelings and processing grief, but prolonged feelings of sadness produce cortisol and are physically, not to mention mentally, bad for you. Plenty of folks can have a couple of drinks or burn one and relieve a little pressure but that isn't an alternative for the recovering community or other abstainers. I thought I'd do some public service and research a few techniques on lifting your mood. Here you go.

1. Treat yourself with kindness
2. Prioritize physical activity
3. Spend time in nature
4. Get plenty of sleep
5. Take a break
6. Enjoy nutrient-rich foods
7. Engage in mindfulness practice
8. Express your feelings
9. Learn What you need
10. Seek out new experiences

How to Cheer Yourself Up On a Hard Day, According to Science

What to Do When You’re Sad: 11 Tips to Feel Better

How to Cope with Losing | Psychology Today

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I tried to keep my mind occupied all day with something other than hope versus awful possibilities. Spent a great deal of time trying to turn a 30 second task into a 15 second task by automating what happens when I download pictures on my computer. I looked for a new program to test so that I could write a review. I did not have the energy or desire to get far from my desk. I did absolutely zero doomscrolling of the news. I didn't read a single article about the cloud hanging over America.

After lunch, I decided what I really wanted to do was just quit my job. I've already retired once, didn't like it so I returned to the workforce. I was looking for something to blame for my malaise today and instead of assigning that blame to existential dread, I figured it just had to be the low pressure, easy job I lucked into. Yep, that's it. I started emailing Wonder Woman all the reasons I wanted to quit. To her everlasting credit, she let me rant and didn't freak out. In the end, I didn't put in my notice, but I didn't feel better either.

I don't want to go to sleep because I'm scared of what will be on my phone when I wake up. I mean what if the worst happens? I have no idea what I will do. For a long time I thought I would just withdraw into my hobbies, delete all the news apps from my devices and become apolitical, finding some way to not feel guilty for the fifty million tons of privilege that would allow me to do that. I know better. I've been reading the news without pause since the days of Watergate. I would not know how to stop.

My entire early adulthood was taken up by 12 straight years of Reagan/Bush. The thought of my dotage being taken up by something worse is horrifying. If old, straight, white guys are feeling this way tonight, what must the politically aware POC, women and LGBT citizens of America be feeling?

Is this incoherent? I don't feel like I have the words to express my anxiety, my anger and my confusion. It's not supposed to be like this. I'm so angry at the people who encouraged this, who allowed it to happen and who stand to benefit from it. I want someone to pay.\

I'm not a control freak. Most of the time I hold my chin up and deal. Like everyone else in the world, I've survived everything that has ever happened to me. I'll survive the next week and the next four years, no matter what. Right? Right?

Someone asked me to write a blog post on whether I have faith in the future of humanity and I have been putting THAT off until after tonight because whatever happens today is really going to color my answer. That's overblown and over dramatic but it is also true. All we need is more air and water pollution and drill, baby, drill and "I'm not a scientist" types. I just want to scream profanity.

America is a mental ward tonight and there aren't any doctors available.

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Have you ever had to work for someone you just couldn't respect? Have you watched your colleagues leaving one by one as you trudged through hell on earth at work? Ever worked for a hypocrite? An ass-kisser? If you can answer any of these questions in the affirmative, and I can, then you know what it brings up all kinds of emotions. When you are forced into coping with what should be unacceptable behavior, it kills your self-esteem and ends up affecting all areas of your life. In hindsight, you wonder why you put up with it.

I had a boss one time who drove by my house on his way to work but wouldn't give me a ride to when I got hit by a reckless driver and totaled my car.

I had a boss who never, ever, not once worked a 40-hour work week.

I had a boss who bought 7000 laptops that were so unsuited for their purpose that they went into a dumpster a year later.

If you are in the bad boss club, take a look at some of the survival tips in these links.

8 Toxic Boss Signs and How to Deal With Them | The Muse

How to Handle a Toxic Boss | Careers | U.S. News

The question is from Brandon - What advice would you give someone graduating from high school?

This question is a cross between what it says and what I'd like a chance to do if I were 18 all over again. It would be cool to have nearly 60 years of accumulated knowledge crammed into an 18-year old head. Let's go.

Yep, go to college

All the people out there making noise about how college isn't for everyone and that becoming a plumber or joining the army are good solid alternatives, you know the ones I'm talking about, those people are anti-education conservatives who went to college themselves and who plan on sending their children. They are trying to cover for the inability or unwillingness to make education affordable to the masses like the social democracies in Europe do—the countries that aren't sending half their tax revenues to defense contractors. People who go to college make more money, have longer life expectancies, and are happier than the people who don't go.

DO NOT JOIN THE MILITARY!!!

I am a vet and I do not hate the military, but it is not a job program, nor is it safe if you happen to be female. One out of three people who enlist do not finish their service with an honorable discharge. The usual pattern for that segment of enlistees is a general discharge for some sort of misconduct, health issues, weight issues, or incompatibility with military life. For those who don't complete their enlistment, all of the wonderful benefits described by their recruiters are no longer attainable, including the educational benefits.

Exercise and Eat Right Starting Now

Don't wait until you get out of shape to start exercising. Make going for a walk or run and going to the gym a habit starting right now. Just get used to the idea that you need 30 minutes to an hour each day to take care of your body. I'm not telling you that you can't eat pizza. I'm saying don't eat a whole pizza. Also, if you never worry about your alcohol consumption, then you are doing it right. If you do worry about it, that's a very good sign that drinking is not right for you. Weed probably isn't a better alternative. You need to get used to getting high on life.

Start Practicing Gratitude

Every day for the rest of your life, take a minute and write down three things you are grateful for. Your list doesn't have to be deep and philosophical. Did you find a good parking space today? Write that down! Did someone treat you nicely today? Write it down! Make it a habit to be continually on the lookout for things to be grateful for. It will do more for your outlook on life than anything else I can think of.

Vote Democrat

The Republican Party is a front for the top 1% of Americans on the wealth scale. They've discovered things that fire up white people and made that what they pretend to represent, but what they are really about is maintaining a system in this country where the richest people get richer and the rest of us fight over the scraps. I'm not saying that the Democrats are perfect because they are not, but they do not preach white supremacy, the subjugation of women, and the perpetuation of the war machine above all other government functions like the Republicans do.

Avoid Debt as Much as Possible

Go to a state-supported school, preferably one that has reduced tuition. Start a habit of saving money from your very first paycheck. When you want something, start saving for it instead of borrowing money. There is a huge difference between what you need and what you want. Internalize that fact and let it guide your spending habits. You may want a fancy car, but what you need is reliable transportation. You may want a big screen TV in your dorm room, but all you need is the laptop you use for school.

Miscellaneous Advice

• Use protection. Kids are great and I love mine, but unplanned pregnancies change your life.

• Wear sunscreen. Kurt Vonnegut was smart AF and he said that so I am going with it.

• Stay close to your family. If you've made it this far without too much trauma, that's awesome. Family is the best mutual aid society ever developed.
  
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If you are a writer or just like words, the chances are you find Apple's built-in Dictionary app a little lacking. There are websites that offer advanced functionality, but you have to be online to use them. There are a few free tools that can help you out.

Nisus Thesaurus

From the developers of Nisus writer, this free thesaurus app, integrates with Apple's services menu to allow use in just about any application where you can enter text. Just highlight the word, "and choose Nisus Thesaurus from the Services menu. When you select a word in Nisus Thesaurus, the synonyms for that word will be shown right next to it in the Word Browser. Go from "sky" to "cumulonimbus" in just a few clicks."

Megawords

For crossword puzzle fans, poets and songwriters, Megawords from developer Frank O'Dwyer is a powerful stand alone app available in the Mac App Store. It's features include:

• rhyme search (works offline)
• wildcard search (crossword solver mode, works offline)
• dictionary lookup of word meanings (multiple dictionaries, online only)
• thesaurus lookup (online only)
• search SOWPODS or TWL or both (Scrabble dictionaries)

Esse

Esse from Ameba Labs offers 61 different text manipulations across eight different categories, similar to Word Service from Devon Technologies or the paid app, Text Workflow. You can do things like:

• All sorts of case changes (ALL CAPS, lowercase, CaMeL, snake_case, etc.)
• Word counts (including unique word counts and text statistics)
• Encoding
• Add/remove/convert line breaks
• Fix/convert quotes
• Extract dates, addresses, dates, emails, phone numbers
• JSON tools
• Line removal options
• Strip non-alpha-numeric characters

There is also an iOS version.

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One of my Internet friends is lucky enough to be going to New Mexico on business this week. Saturday he's heading up to Santa Fe and that makes him a lucky man. My wife and I spent a week's vacation there a while back and it was fantastic. There are so many great places to eat, hike, ride bikes and make day trips to. If you are into art, there are plenty of museums and galleries to captivate you.

Here are a few places I can recommend from personal experience.

Hikes

Chamisa Trail - in Santa Fe is a beautiful hiking trail that offers stunning views of the surrounding landscape. It is a popular destination for both locals and tourists looking to explore the outdoors. You can find more information about Chamisa Trail in Santa Fe by visiting this website: Chamisa Trail Santa Fe.

Armijo Trail - Explore this 4.7-mile loop trail near Cedar Crest, New Mexico. Generally considered a moderately challenging route, it takes an average of 2 h 11 min to complete. This is a very popular area for hiking and horseback riding, so you'll likely encounter other people while exploring.

Restaurants

The Shed - Located in a building dating back the the 1660s - We offer locals and visitors alike a time tested taste of the best that Northern New Mexico has to offer both in cuisine and hospitality. We are a family owned and operated business now under the management of the 3rd generation of Carswells. Visitors and locals returning to Santa Fe don't feel like they have arrived in Santa Fe until they have tasted the Shed chile once again.

Bumble Bee's Baja Grill- Great vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options along with organically raised meats. "When we say the “freshest of ingredients” we mean that all our meats are freshly grilled to include a fine selection of skirt steak, natural New Mexico lamb, Mahi-mahi from off the coast of South America, farm raised shrimp, skinless chicken breasts and tender pork carnitas which are braised and slow-cooked in special spices. We also prepare whole natural chickens that are marinated with our secret recipe and roasted on an imported French rotisserie. Fresh vegetables and fruits are brought in daily to prepare the savory garnish and fillings that adorn many of the selections."

Drive

The High Road to Taos - This route takes the traveler through an authentic remnant of Old Spain, still evident in the religion, architecture, topography, history, and people along the route. The byway travels through Chimayo, a community known for the beautiful Santuario de Chimayo and the El Posito, a hole in the floor of a side chapel filled with healing earth. Along N.M. 76, the byway follows through the creased and crinkled badlands, polka-dotted with scrubby piñon and juniper, with the Jemez Mountains enormous on the horizon.

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My Internet friend, R. Scott Jones, asked - What's one place you've traveled to (or perhaps an entire trip) that changed you? Tell us how you changed because of it, and why you think it inspired that change.

I've lived for all but a very short period of my adult life in the same southern military town where I went to high school. Most of my vacations have been to the beaches or mountains of the same state I live in. My military service took me to places like Texas and California, but never out of the United States. Then, over a period of three years during the beginning stages of the US war in Iraq, I became a traveling fool. My activism against that war took me to college campuses and demonstrations all over the US and Europe.

The way that happened was a matter of luck, politics, and maybe a tad bit of exploitation. I learned a lot about group dynamics, organizing, and the far left as it exists in the United States. I was a member of a tiny little community group in Fayetteville, NC, protesting the death penalty and other social justice issues. Then 9/11 happened, and George Bush and Co. decided to attack Iraq because 19 Saudi Arabians attacked the US. My son was in basic training in the Navy on 9/11 and was on the way to report to the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower after completing Navy Nuclear Training when the first bombs fell on Baghdad. He was home on leave and went to a demonstration against the war and held a sign that said "No Blood for Oil." He was interviewed by an AP reporter. When he reported to the ship, he was brought up on charges and convicted. It was bullshit because even members of the military have free speech when they are off duty, out of uniform, and not purporting to represent the government. Thousands of GIs did it during the Vietnam War.

I was pissed about the way he was treated and told the story at a small gathering of activists I attended. In attendance was an instructor from the University of NC-Greensboro who was a member of the International Socialist Organization (ISO). He led the student group there and had ties with the national headquarters in Chicago. He approached me and asked if I would mind coming to his school to speak, and I agreed. I didn't know that I was being auditioned. When I spoke at the school, members of the national cadre were there, and they liked what I had to say and how I said it. Before I knew it, speaking invitations started pouring in. I was eager to represent Military Families Speak Out, a national organization I was trying to organize for, so I went to every place I was invited.

They asked me if I wanted to go to Paris to speak at the World Socialism Conference on an anti-war panel, and I agreed. I didn't even have a passport and had to hustle to get one. I was there for nine days. My roommate was a man named Shuja Graham, a former Black Panther given the death penalty for the death of a correctional officer in a prison riot, later exonerated, as he was not actually involved in the murder. I'm a former prison guard myself, but Shuja and I got along just fine. I met leftists from all over the world and started to see some of the nitpicking differences for which that strain of politics is known.

I didn't do much classic tourism, other than visiting Notre Dame and the Seine one afternoon. I spent much time talking politics and drinking. I went to a demonstration organized by the French League of Communist Revolutionaries and bought a Palestinian scarf from the Italian Communist Party, whom I later learned were Stalinists. My hosts, the ISO, were Trots, disciples of Leon Trotsky, an early Communist thought leader assassinated on Stalin's orders. Most of my far-left-leaning political friends back home belonged to an organization associated with Maoism.

When I returned home, I continued to speak out and travel, eventually going to Italy and Great Britain on ISO-sponsored trips. As the anti-war movement grew, some activists got lots of press, like Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq who gained fame for camping out in a ditch outside of Bush's Texas ranch. Another became known for appearing in Michael Moore's movie, Fahrenheit 911. GI resistors started getting attention and invitations to speak. People organizing against the war competed to see which well-known person they could get to come to their demos. Factions developed. It was distasteful. The ISO cadre, whom I had come to look upon as my friends, suddenly wanted to dictate to me where I could and could not speak, depending on the politics of the organizers. I was outraged because I was on one team, Team Stop the War. That was my goal. I wasn't trying to grow anyone's membership or advance some nuanced understanding of far-left politics. I just wanted for kids like my son to quit being sent to die in Iraq.

Although I remained very much against US policy, I made the abrupt decision to quit traveling and speaking after making one last trip to Atlanta for an event that had nothing to do with any political group. Thereafter, I attended meetings of the same hometown organization I started with and went to our tiny demos happily. My adventures on the national and international stage were enlightening, and I got to meet a lot of military families and hopefully discourage a few young people from joining up. My adventures with the ISO, of which I must stress, I was never a member, were enlightening, if for nothing else, to see a small slice of American culture that most people never experience.

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I bought Mail Archiver X by Moth Software at a discount from Bundlehunt a few months back and didn't have to pay the full $49.95 they charge on their website. My intention was to keep a regularly updated archive of my 19-year-old Gmail account containing 155K messages. I also wanted to retrieve a Yahoo account that I use solely for newsletters.

I knew beforehand that it's extremely easy to use Google Takeout to download an archive of your email in the universally recognized mbox format because I've done it several times. My Gmail archive weighs in at about 8GBs. You don't get a lot of choices when you request the archive, though. You get it all from the beginning of time. I wanted one to import into Eagle Filer so that I could have offline access to all the receipts, registration information and other things I'd received via email since 2005. Google Takeout did the trick.

With Mail Archiver X you can filter the emails you choose to archive, a feature I wanted. Unfortunately, despite supposedly being able to add files to an archive and cumulatively grow it over time, I was never able to get that function to work. Either the program insisted on downloading an entire archive each time it ran, taking hours, or it only downloaded files since the last time I ran it, but in a new file, so that I could not search my entire account at one time. Their tech support answered my emails, but not with helpful information. The company is in the US and the person who answered my email did not appear to a native English speaker. At present, support is no longer free. They have a $70 fee.

The other thing about the app I don't care for is its size. It's over half a GB. That's just the program, not the archives it creates. I would never recommend this program to anyone.

✉️ Reply by email

I am one link in a chain of military service stretching over four generations. I didn't go to war, as the period between 1983 and 1989 lacked one to send me to. They only needed a few guys for the invasions of Grenada and Panama, and I wasn't one of them. I've lived in military towns for most of my life. I'm also a committed progressive, somewhat to the left of almost everybody you probably know. I've learned over the years that no one on either side of the political spectrum has an objective view of the people who actually serve in the military. People on the right insist that they are all heroes fighting for our freedom, even the truck mechanics who spent four years in the motor pool at Ft. Hood and got out. People on the left vacillate between calling them victims of the war machine and mercenaries, depending on which ones they are talking about.

Practically the only folks who have an objective view of who soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are, are those men and women themselves. Here's what one of my friends, a former special operations soldier (Green Beret) said about himself and his fellows on why or why not military service makes you more American than other people.

They volunteered to be there, they get compensated for their time just like any other person that works any other salaried job, they have employment benefits rarely seen outside silicon valley and wall street, they travel the world, have the opportunity to pursue degrees at no cost, and the majority of their day is spent just sitting around waiting to go home. Once they leave service, if they have long-term effects from service they will be compensated for those for the rest of their life tax free, have access to healthcare for reduced cost, reduced cost life insurance, access to programs and services that allow them to build business, buy homes, and send their children to school with no money out of pocket, and will be able to tell outlandish stories with little ability to be fact checked even in our social media obsessed culture. BUT, they are more American because they do something that you feel guilty for not doing yourself. Like the garbage collectors, the police, firefighters, teachers, janitors, landscapers, painters, carpenters, roofers, plumbers, teachers, nurses, etc…

Military Life | The Point Magazine

What is something that civilians don't realize about the military and its members? - Quora

Public, Veterans Agree: Most Americans Don’t Understand Military Life | Pew Research Center

Defense Finance and Accounting Service > MilitaryMembers > payentitlements > Pay Tables

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The November Ask Me Anything blogging challenge is going well. Today's question is once again from @annie@social.lol on Mastodon. She wants to know, "What's an important lesson you've learned about relationships?" As a happily married guy, albeit in marriage number four, I feel fully qualified to share my expertise on this one. Anyway, relationships also include friends, work, and more.

High School Sweethearts

I got married the first time to my high school sweetheart. I was 18, she was 17. We already had a baby and had another one pretty quickly to boot. Today, all four of us are doing OK. Getting an early start on children made me a young grandparent able to do plenty of stuff with my huge collection (13) of descendants. Although the marriage didn't last long (three years), it did not ruin my life in any appreciable way.

Don't Marry Someone You Meet in Rehab

I don't really need to explain this one, do I? Also, ten-year age gaps create certain realities, many of them not positive. 1/10 Would not recommend!

Even Good Relationships Can Wither

I think it's fine, healthy even, to have interests and hobbies different than those of your partner, but interests and hobbies need to take second place in a marriage. The most important thing in a marriage is the other person in it. Taking them for granted or assuming that all the hard work is in the past is unwise. That's all I have to say about that.

Good Relationships Have Requirements

It is quite possible to be true to yourself and also put your partner's needs at the top of your list. My relationship with Wonder Woman works because I have respect for her needs. I know what things are important to her, and I accept that without argument. She does the same for me. She kind of had to train me, and I had to allow myself to be trained. I don't think either one of us has extravagant demands. We have evolved into a couple that spends most of our time together. Most of what we do, we do together. I don't go running with her, but I do go to most of her races. When we are at home, we spend most of the time in the same room, often within an arm's reach of each other. We always kiss goodbye, including before work, at lunch, and before sleeping.

Work is Hit or Miss

In the job I retired from, I made several friends that outlasted my employment. A couple of them have lasted more than 20 years. We've done things socially, been to each other's houses. I've watched them get married and have kids just as they've watched my family grow. I believe in being friendly with the people I work with and finding out about their lives. I had the same boss for many, many years, and the guy was so disinterested in everyone who worked for him. He didn't know anything personal about his employees, and I just marveled at his indifference. Most work relationships don't evolve into friendships, but I think it's important to humanize my co-workers and not see them as cogs in a machine.

Organizations

I'm an outspoken and energetic person. When I'm in a group of people with a common purpose and something needs to be done, I don't mind voicing my opinion about the direction we take, nor do I mind stepping up to do the work. I don't know how to be any other way. The upside to this is lots of people appreciate you. The downside is a lot of people resent you. I don't like being resented, but what I like even less is a group of people staring at each other, waiting for someone else to make the first move.

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Jason Kottke began blogging in 1998. In 2005 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award (LOL). In 2024, he's still at it and still getting new subscribers. Although he is a designer by profession, he's made his living through subscriptions to his blog, ad and affiliate income since 2005. A Vermont, resident, Kottke has a world-wide audince, may of them who have followed him for many years.

In a recent discussion among the members of his website at kottke.org he wrote the following introduction, while asking his readers to also introduce themselves.

I'll go first: My name is Jason and I live in VT with my two kids. I'm struggling with the increasing darkness & cold of stick season here in VT and some early-onset empty nesting, but I'm trying to combat it by biking as much as I can before the snow flies. My son and I are watching Devs (a rewatch for me) and I'm listening to Percival Everett's James on audiobook, which is incredible so far. I can be found on Instagram, Threads, and Mastodon, but I'm enjoying Bluesky the most these days.

Kottke's blog is a mix of original writing and his comments on news and feature articles. On the blog's 25th anniversary, Om Malik, noted Silicon Valley write commented:

Kottke, the blog that curates the best of the whimsical and creative web and reflects the eclectic personality of its founder, Jason Kottke, is turning 25.

Martin Kelley said:

he never tried to ramp his site up to become a media empire. No venture capitalist money, no clickbait headlines, no pivot to video or other trendy media chimera

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In the continuation of the Ask Me Anything series, today I am tackling a question from Annie, first answered by Keenan, Estebanxto and Kerri Ann - if you could instantly change one internal pattern/thing about yourself, what would it be?

This is an easy one. I would turn myself into a natural people person on the spot. I'd love to live in a world where relationships were easy for me. I can come across as personable and friendly, and there is a large part of me that truly is that way, but it takes so much effort. I make the effort because I enjoy the rewards and reactions I get from being that person, but my god, it takes so much energy and concentration. Left to my own devices and true nature, I'd silently do my own thing, content to be left alone most of the time.

For a long time in my life, I acted very taciturn, rarely showing much emotion other than irritation. I was pretty gruff. It was all to keep people at a distance because I was so clueless about how to deal with them. I grew up moving once or twice a year, and my first 14 years on planet earth were spent always being the new kid. I didn't know what it felt like to be settled or to have long-term relationships. As an immature new kid, I felt like I always had something to prove, and if it backfired, my natural inclination was to angrily withdraw.

In early adulthood, I dealt with substance abuse and mental health issues, both of which I sought treatment for, and after a myriad of struggles, finally got on top of. When I finally entered long-term sobriety, I realized that I absolutely needed people in order to be healthy, and that's when I decided to drop the gruff, grouchy, grumpy nature that I had always used. I was 43 years old. At work, I adopted the attitude that I would have were I self-employed instead of a civil servant. I really concentrated on being friendly and approachable and started thinking about how other people felt. I was at that job for 20 years, and I'm still friends with people from there. All of them will tell you that I had a mid-career personality change.

In my personal life, I decided to start sharing the things I loved, which at the time were 12-Step meetings and riding my bike. I'd spent the last decade heavily involved in activism, always struggling against the things that made me mad at the world. Bush's wars, Conservative attempts to punish LGBT people, criminal justice inequality and more were things I organized against, but it had taken its toll on me. I stepped away from that and directed my energy into being the guy who was just grateful to be sober another day. When I realized I had a talent for endurance cycling, I became an evangelist about it to people who were interested, constantly talking people into attempting challenging bike rides of greater and greater distances. I met Wonder Woman at one of those rides.

I finally learned how to make small talk. I adopted the role of a nurturer and started trying to make people comfortable, whether it was on a bike ride or at work when I went to help teachers and administrators with various computer problems. It was about this time that my grandchildren started entering the world, and I found that to soften me up a bit as well. I remember explicitly training myself to smile more.

Today my problem is maintaining that friendly persona. It takes a lot of energy and sometimes I run out. "What's the matter Lou? Why are you so quiet?" is something I hear with regularity. There's nothing actually wrong. I just need some time to recharge my batteries and be still. By design, our home is a quiet place. It's relaxing. I have become an extrovert with introverted tendencies.

When I look at people I know who seem to be always on their game, friendly and helpful by nature, I marvel at how they do it. I wonder if it even takes any effort on their part. I have a coworker who can talk to anyone and keep a calm demeanor throughout it all. He rarely complains and is always there to help when asked. Someone recently said that the two of us were alike, and I took it as a great compliment. Maybe I'm getting better at maintaining a friendly outside when my inside isn't feeling it. I hope so. It sure took long enough!

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Today bloggers across the IndyWeb started doing AMAs with questions from a variety of sources. Here are the writers I found with tagged Mastodon posts.

I remember every mean thing anyone ever said to me - By Keenan answering "If you could instantly change one internal pattern or thing, what would it be?"

Kicking Off Ask Me Anything for the November Challenges | Living Out Loud - Yours truly answering "Why do you have the politics you do?"

😣 Perfectionism is Exhausting | And So It Goes… - Kerri Ann answering the same question as Keenan (above).

Writing Month #1: Things I Was Wrong About – Matt’s Weird Little Garden - Matt answering "What have you been wrong about?"

What do I do for work, and drink? - [Gabz/mL] gabz answering "1) I would actually love to read about your work (genetics? agriculture?) but I'm not sure how to phrase the question other than "So what do you do for work exactly?" but maybe more like what's something you really like about your job? (or hate) or what's your typical workday like? and 2) what's your favorite brand and/or flavor(s) of fizzy water? I am a fizzy water drinker till I die."

If you could instantly change one internal pattern/thing about yourself, what would it be? - Ask Me Anything Challenge #WeblogPoMoAMA | A wannabe blog Estebantxo answering the same question as Keenan and Kerri Ann (above).

Musing with the Magpie · Writing Month Day 1 Magpie answering "What are you doing to prepare for the coming winter?"

WeblogPoMo AMA #1: Work And Drink | Leon Mika - Leon Answering the same questions as gabz

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Question: Why do you have the politics you have today?

In real life, outside of my family and a couple of close friends, I rarely talk politics unless someone says something real backwards around me, in which case I speak up. I consider any endorsement of what passes for Republican policy to be backwards, so I'm not going to let anyone subject me to it. I don't go around preaching to anyone and all I want is the same treatment.

That's the root of my politics right there. It's the golden rule. I want to live in a society where people treat other people the way they want to be treated. Republicans want a two tiered system where there is a definite advantage given to white, native born people. They want to explain away the disparity in educational achievement and the rates of incarceration by acting like minorities are stupid criminals instead of using our joint national resources to bring about a better system. If I were poor (again) I'd want to be treated with compassion, not scorn.

Conservatives want a government that puts more money in their pocket and screw everybody who isn't like them. I want a government that provides for the common good. don't believe in a government that foster's an elite class who get to skip paying taxes on their yachts and jets. I think that the effective tax rate for people who live off accumulated generational wealth should be at least as much as the people who clean their houses.

In order to have the kind of country I want, the insane amount of money that gets funneled to defense corporations has to be drastically reduced. Our government has a vested interest in keeping people scared of terrorists, the Chinese, the Russians, Mexican drug lords. None of the money spent towards combatting that lengthens lives the way it would if it were spent on cancer research and improved medical care for everyone.

I want to live in a country with educated people because I believe education to be important. I worked in schools for decades and I know how dedicated teachers are. Republicans have fostered a narrative that schools are failing and it isn't true. They use any excuse to avoid spending money on education, preferring to give tax cuts to those who already have the most money. They want to give money to private schools that allow non-certified teachers to tell children that men and dinosaurs walked the earth together.

I believe in science. Only a fool would look at the rapidly changing climate and think the best thing to do is drill more oil wells, but that is the policy Republicans want. I want to drink clean water and breath clean air and I don't want to be told how spending the money for those basic life giving necessities sin't good for the balance sheet of some billionaire.

So there you have it. Those are my reasons. I don't think the Democratic party has the solution to all those problems, but they are a hell of a lot closer than the alternative. The two party system is terrible. There is too much money in politics. I hope we incrementally change the system to something that better serves more people, especially those that need it most.

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