At the #library
Me: Okay. I’m going to go browse some books. You two stay here and read quietly.
9yo: What if we get abducted?
Me: Be annoying until they let you go.
Other library patron: *snort*
Jim quietly smiled in response while looking away from the young software engineer, “You know what I did before this? Before coding?”
“No.”
“I was a chemical plant operator. You can’t just restart one of those. The fire, the spark, the pressurization, the catalyzation, it has to keep running. Has to be tended at all times. You walk the jungles of process lines at 4AM and feel their swirling and vibration and heat. They are a physical thing. An obligation. They are more a child than the thing back there will ever be, John. You drop them and they break forever. You talk about your fear of machines. But I know someone killed by a machine.”
John started to talk, but was gently preempted in a rumbly voice.
“A human decided that. Not the braided stainlessless steel hose rotting away. A human decided it could last longer, to save money. That machine was just a messenger for the choice of a man.”
@kaoudis Absolutely! Fear is valuable. When I was down range I never wanted to get on the truck with anyone who wasn’t afraid
Being afraid doesn’t say anything bad about you, it’s your body’s signal to you that something in your environment is possibly dangerous. It’s just as right and worthy as any other feeling of being felt, and doesn’t mean you can’t handle the thing you’re afraid of - just that there’s possibly danger.
In desert climates of the US a suburban lawn, with irrigation and soil aeration "maintenance" is basically a fire ant paradise. Fire ants love direct sun. They hate bushes that shade the ground, diverse clumps of plants, and fire ants can't live in the desert. They are tropical and the sprinklers for lawns complete the picture. Fire ant paradise!
But then people get so angry when they show up to live in something clearly made for them.
@futurebird
That's what the javelina was saying! 😂
https://defector.com/i-ate-all-your-precious-golf-worms-and-id-do-it-again
@freemo @peterdrake Thanks for taking this on and making it run more and more smoothly!
@freemo @BlueWaver22 It seems to vary a lot, but it is interesting how we’ve become inured to flu deaths and are well on our way to being inured to covid-19 deaths.
As a species we are really good at getting used to all manner of things
I strongly suspect M.C. Escher's walk to and from school was uphill both ways.
#MCEscher
@GottaLaff That’s terrible, he was such a talent
@BootsChantilly Oh no! So sorry to hear that. I hope you’re at the er and on the mend soon
Father, Fiancé, Volunteer EMT, (conflicted) Veteran, Computer Geek, Perpetual Student. Command line kind of guy (he/him) Very amateur woodworker, crude sketcher, proud nerd, liberal, wished I knew more math and science.
I’m willing to be wrong, certainty often means that I don’t actually understand the problem