october 2024 donation

 

for october, i donated to ballotpedia because i always depend on them for info when i vote. i mostly use them to see "where the money is coming from."

august and september 2024 donation

the annual long beach gives starts in september so this month i am doing my usual $25+ donation (plus because i donated the extra $1.62 to cover credit card costs) to both algalita and to moore institute.

"be right back" take 2

recently, when down in sd with friends and visiting other friends, i rewatched black mirror's "be right back" episode. my friends and i ended up arguing a bit about it, so i thought i'd write a post. as i started, i thought i'd see if i'd written a post about it before, and, me being me, it turns out that i had! that post is here.

it's interesting to see that i basically feel the same way as i did seven years ago. the only thing that's changed is that i now DO think it's disrespectful to "upgrade" your person, but i'm still not sure if it's ethically wrong to do so. i think that may depend on the consent of the original person, and probably your motives for doing so. giving something to someone they always wanted seems fine, giving them something they never cared about also seems fine. but giving them traits they never wanted, and would find insulting if changed, seems morally dubious. but i wonder sometimes if motives should affect morality as much as we want it to, but i dunno, so imma leave that part "blank."

anyway, back to now. my friends seem to think that this is terrible tech and should never be implemented because 1. people should move on and 2. relationships with real people are better than relationships with fake ones. another fear of theirs is that by 3. not moving on, one will disregard all real relationships and become a non-contributing member of society, which is bad.

i had a lot of issues with pretty much all aspects of this.

1. people should move on.
i already addressed this in my previous post so i'm not going to get into it again, but while i agree that people should move on, i don't think it's as necessary as my friends seem to think it is.

2. relationships with real people are better than relationships with fake ones and
3 one will disregard all real relationships and become a non-contributing member of society, which is bad.
my friends seemed to stress that you can't have a real relationship with a non-sentient being, and especially not if you can control that being. the show seems to indicate that you can alter the personality of the android thing more to your liking, and less what the person would have really done/said/been. let's accept that premise. my friends seem to think that if you can now create a "perfect relationship," you will, and that that will negatively affect your relationship with others since, presumably, you won't have prefect relationships with others, so you'll cast aside all other real relationships and only up keep only the perfect one. 

firstly. why are real relationships better than ones you create?
normally, reality matters. i'm thinking about celebrity stalkers here. but if this isn't even a real person, the relationship isn't really reciprocal, so you're not misinterpreting something to someone else's deficit.

second. would that many people want to create a "perfect relationship?" let's say that yes, they do. but would that negatively affect your relationship and interactions with others? i don't really think it would. and if it did, would it so terribly affect your relationship with others that you would give up on all interactions with the real world? my friends seem to think so, but i really don't. i don't see that happening hardly ever. in the show, the main character seems ashamed of the android so she hides him away, but would people do that if this tech were to become more mainstream? i can imagine going to a friend's house where her andriod husband is there and we all hang out as real humans do. he can't come to my place, sure (in the show, they have to remain within ~30m of their activation point), but i imagine she would have a normal life outside of her home. she still has to go to work, and grocery shop, and such. it's not like her whole life would revolve around this android. and if it did, it would no more or less a problem that if her whole life revolved around a human man that she also would never leave.

also, i don't think that being a contributing member of society is so important. we have a lot of people who don't particularity "contribute" to society but we're okay with them. (i'm thinking people in comas, people in prison for life, severely mentally or physically disabled people, the list goes on.) we don't complain about these people not giving back to society, and in fact, they actually "take up" resources in ways that an android wouldn't.

actually, what does contributing to society mean anyway? having a job, volunteering, spending money which grows the economy and keeps people employed, being part of a community which enriches people's lives, creating something long lasting, making at least one person happy?

ultimately, i'm not saying that i'm for this kind of tech. i just don't think it's as bad as some others seem to think it is. i'm generally a "you do you, and i'll do me" person. if it makes you happy, and doesn't hurt anyone, then go right on ahead. i think A LOT about morality and i try to form my judgements based on morals, not just what feels right or wrong. i think that's why i'm a lot more accepting of things and people. ...which i think is good, lol.

july 2024 donation

bit late with my july donation. but i finally did it. :)

last night j and i went to a free concert at the hatch memorial shell. it was so nice! we brought a blanket to sit on, leftover pizza, and some other foods. we listened to the music and stared up at the darkening sky and we each saw a shooting star!

the concert was presented by the Boston Landmarks Orchestra and the Rivers School Conservatory. I donated to the first (mostly cause they asked for it, and i didn't even realize the rivers school thing until i looked it all up online today in prep for making this post)

it was great! kind of like being at a more intimate hollywood bowl. with much much much more goose poop, lol.

impressions: boston

minivan school buses (rather than the usual yellow school buses)

so many colleges and universities; few locals. also so many hospitals.

radiator in every room, even a mini one in the bathroom!

lack of parking, very few drive thrus

streets are rarely on a grid. so many curves and offshoots and rotaries (roundabouts) 

so many toll road, but at least they aren't expensive

both more aggressive and more courteous drivers

quick to honk when light just turned green. but also a lack of honking cause they seem to get it when you fuck up cause it's difficult to navigate here; people are happy to just drive around you

often inaccurate google maps

scooters and motorcyclists regularly run very red lights. wear very little protective gear either

cops seem particularly inept

differently colored emergency vehicles (orange striped ambulances, highlighter yellow tennis ball fire trucks)

rains pretty much every week

top down bottom up windows, but only one window screen which are damn hard to maneuver

11pm to 7am noise ordinance

lots of red brick buildings

lots of pedestrians and bicyclists

single windmills

very large black ants! weird silverfish looking guys in more of a flesh-tone than silver. also HUGE centipede/millipede guys

cherry blossoms, dogwood flowers, and so many varieties of hydrangeas

yellowish tap water / toilet water

dumb alcohol laws, even grocery stores don't always sell wine / beer. obviously liquor is more tightly regulated.

expensive produce. $7.99 a lb or peaches in august!! $1.29 for a single lime!!! 2 regular sized kiwis for $5!! (these are not the prices at every grocery store, but each of these WAS the price different stores. and these aren't like erewhon type grocers, just regular places like h-mart)

more bland (under-seasoned) food

impressions: montreal

bad roads, but also a lot of road construction

so many parks

so many mosquitoes :(

residential trash bags, but recycle and compost bins

citywide system of paid parking

lots of murals / art. even in fonts and signage. also a lot of graffiti tagging

large abandoned buildings

brick buildings (not all red)

residential architecture!! large windows, windows in nearly all front doors, metal staircases and many balconies, double staircases. 1st story no stairs, with exterior stairs to 2nd story. interior 3rd story stairs

seems like relatively few single family homes. mostly triplexes.at least in the city proper

french everything, and not everyone is fully bilingual in english either

lots of trees and hollyhocks (and also hydrageas)

so many bicycles and cyclists

liquor only sold at SAQ store (which is owned and run by the govt, and also has less extended store hours than govt law permits, lol)

impressions: maine

freeway center rumble strip (rather than on sides of road)

lobster everywhere in everything

ice cream everywhere

absolutely do not know how to navigate 4-way stop intersections

june 2024 donation

 

i donated a bit early this month because i was buying tickets to the moth event at wbur, which asked if i'd like to donate, so i did! wbur is a public radio station in boston that i'd actually heard about from my many podcasts, lol. i think they do a number of events out here? anyway, g&t are coming to town in june, so we're all going to a moth event, which j really likes and i think are pretty cool. the best part about the moth is that you never know what you're going to get at a live event!

impressions: japan

radio: much talking, less music, weird variety of music on same station

few actual raised sidewalks, more like raised curb that separates street from sidewalk which is same flatness

ped xing sign man has a hat one, and crossing signs have a countdown of sorts

little school aged kids in yellow hats!! and other random fancy school uniforms

the salary man unifirm is a real thing. only navy and black. very little grey or any deviation. women have more variation (cream) but it's also very very standard and uniform

everyone backs into parking spots

no farm animals in the countryside? not even chickens?

no trash cans, but very clean streets

van life is easier here (assuming you have a shower system), because of the plentiful and clean michinoekis

gas stations (not sure about major cities) close at night and don't open super early

dead quiet on public transit

people stand outside convenience stores in groups drinking beer at night

self bag groceries tho there are assisted checkouts

lots of clear umbrellas (personal, not rentals)

so much chinese food influence: gyoza, different noodle dishes

so much chinese writing (makes road trips easier, that's for sure)

lack of napkins, even in restaurants. the napkins they do have are the small weird plastic feeling ones

much longer tp "squares" 

lots and lots of beverage commercials on tv

everything has a mascot

laundromat doesn't sell extra laundry powder, tho they do sell dryer sheets, etc. shoe cleaning and drying machines that work super well! safe enough to leave stuff there for hours

bidets everywhere, even at michinoeckis and konbinis

very small establishments of few seats and/or little navigational room / the SMALLEST of bathrooms 

go to places VERY EARLY to avoid crowds (like before 7am)

osaka is noisy and dirty

kyoto is overcrowded with tourists

impressions: nola

few window screens (which is weird cause they have lots of flying bugs)

few freeway sound blocking walls, and the ones they do have are very low (so not good at blocking sound)

freeway merge lane is like the ones in tennessee so you gotta follow the right stripe, not the left one or you'll run yourself off the road

very quiet at night; no frogs or crickets or birds, tho we live right next to the water?

more dramatic thunder and lightening storms

fan heater in the bathroom!! love love this feature

]automatic car washes have an attendant to help you at the initial machine, and there is a bug wash trough and broom

they don't pull over for emergency vehicles

there seem to be more hit and run car accidents

a ton of roadkill (even an alligator or two!)

loose alcohol laws: no last call, can do take away alcohol, even have drive thru daiquiri bars!

have to show / upload? id to access online porn sites

food is more salty

friendly, talkative southerners

very few latinos in the city. all labor service people are black. very weirdly racially segregated. more latinos in the burbs tho

can park on the opposite side of the street facing the wrong direction

often park with half the wheels up on the grass (to be more out of the way of traffic)

lower curbs, but also not much of a slope so that they're very bumpy! not nice for wheelchair or strollers

few locals. and it also seems like everyone has lived in california for some time

very obvious divestment in city: so many abandoned things, terrible road conditions

april & may 2024 donation

a bestie of mine set up a gofundme to "Help the Bolbol family evacuate Gaza escape hell" so i've donated $50 to the cause.

feburary & march 2024 donation

i was late with my feburary donation, so i combined it with march to donate $50 to GNO Caring Collective. when g was here, we visited the bar at columns for happy hour. while there, g struck up a conversation with our server, who, turns out, is the founder of a great local non-profit called GNO Caring Collective. he started it early pandemic to help with covid assistance. since then, they have expanded efforts to hurricane resources, school lunch delivery, rent assistance, and more. it feels really good to help a local org and I'm thankful to have met him. and of course, i'm also thankful to g for starting that conversation with him!

january 2024 donation

this month i donated to grounds krewe, who's mission is "to promote waste prevention, recycling and sustainable products at new orleans special events."

being in louisiana has been a bit of an eye opener. j came first and said that we didn't have a recycling bin, only a trash bin. i arrived and saw, actually, we only had a recycling bin? i figured this because it's blue. but in looking around, all our neighbors had green and black bins only, no blue? then i noticed that many of our bins had different waste collection agencies printed on them, so i think they're just... randomly distributed? i haven't been able to google anything solid on when trash pickup day is, or what they collect either; it's a mess.

speaking of mess, i've been going out to some mardi gras parades and they amount of waste is astonishing! float people throw stuff out at the crowd and, since it's free stuff, it's poorly made stuff. most times, people to catch the stuff, but often times, it hits the ground first which means that it breaks. and since there's constantly free stuff being thrown out, no one really cares for the broken stuff. here in slidell, parades are fridays, saturdays, and sundays. with one or two parades a day. for the regular parades, they city does NOT supply extra trash cans (or even port-o--potties), and neither is the stuff cleaned up after each parade. it is mostly picked up by monday morning though. storm drains are generally blocked, so stuff is mostly prevented from getting in there, but for the BOAT PARADES, people also just throw stuff up at people on land so A LOT of it ends up in the water! I did not see a boat with a pool net picking stuff up either...

so they don't seem to recycle here (tho there are drop off locations for recycling, which, let's face it, very few people will do), aren't particularly mindful of litter, and i don't think i've seen a single person use a reusable bag (I have not noticed about water bottles or reusable cups). ugh. nola DOES have a refill store tho, which we visited earlier this week, and I did pick up a few non-plastic sponges and a brush. (I messed up and didn't buy the dish soap, bah).

anyway, so i donated to grounds krewe because they're trying to do something about the incredible waste that comes with mardi gras.