@Bodling@deacon.social
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

Bodling

@Bodling@deacon.social

Retired librarian. Retired Lutheran pastor. Semi-retired Lutheran. Appalachian Trail hiker. Concordia graduate.

Probably the least important person on Mastodon at the moment.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Worst Date Ever:

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@RickiTarr Hold on! <checks date notes> At 23 minutes into the date we both agreed that we were having a "nice time." And then 17:05 later there were "no objections voiced" when the idea of another date was raised.

I submit that, based on the record, this could NOT have been the "worst date ever."

RickiTarr, (edited ) to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

This is probably my worst poll, but I'm curious, for science:

I have/had:

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@RickiTarr Was just thinking about this a couple days ago. Physically, it was fine. We were well fed, well clothed, firm roof over our heads, educated, taken on vacations, vaccinated, got regular dental and medical check ups. All that kind of stuff.

Not beaten, not locked in the basement, no alcoholism, no drug addiction. None of that kind of stuff.

But emotionally, or psychologically? I'm still working thru some of that, I guess. Late in life. For the rest of my life.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Money doesn't buy happiness is something rich people say, because they can't figure out why people don't like them.

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@RickiTarr Willing to take part in an experiment to settle this. Once someone figures what amount of money we're talking about, y'all devise a way to get it to me. We'll give it, say, a year and then I'll report back whether or not it bought me happiness.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Something I've noticed a lot lately, is that especially Boomer women, but honestly, women in general, don't seem to ask for what they want or need in a direct way. I notice this a lot with my Mom and her friends. Instead of just asking for what they need directly they tell a story, to ask in a roundabout way. For instance, my Mom needed help this morning, and Instead of just saying, "Hey, I dropped my remote, can you pick it up for me?" She tells a one minute story about what happened, no ask, and eventually I get the point, and then suggest that I come pick it up. Or if one of her friends wants to do something like have a birthday party for a friend, they don't say "We should have a party!" They say, It's Sarah's Birthday coming up, you know she likes surprises, what does everyone think we should do?"

I often wonder if this is why older people think younger women are rude and demanding, because younger people often just ask for what they want and need in a more direct way. But also it's probably just straight up sexism, because men are supposed to make decisions, and women are supposed to make suggestions.

What do you all think? Is this just me? Have you experienced something similar?

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@RickiTarr My own mother was even less direct than that. Somehow we were supposed to know and anticipate what she wanted. At least hearing a story you can divine a clue.

That, or I was really obtuse.

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Okay, a little mystery also for today. After the Toxic Club, my
brother and I got a strawberry limeade at a little drive inn, and drove around this Conservation Area, but then we start seeing this fence with these signs, it's like 8 foot tall with lots of the fence totally blacked out, and these signs placed on them that say:

Saline Valley Ranch, No Hunting, No Trespassing

This fence went for miles, and miles had to be incredibly pricey to put in, it reminded me of the fence they'd have at a minimum security prison, but we didn't see cows, horses, crops, nothing but woods and hills and miles and miles of giant fence.

We try to find information about what it is, but there's basically nothing. My husband looks it up on Google Earth, and finds Little Saline Ranch, and I look it up, and it says permanently closed, and even less information is available about that. Google Earth shows lots of wooded land, a lake, and a few open fields, but we couldn't see any buildings or animals, nothing like that.

So, looking up that I find this article about mysterious happenings in the area:

https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/local/2018/10/31/hunting-ghosts-miller-county-other/9408986007

It mentions several people seeing a Bigfoot type cryptid in the area, so obviously the fence is to keep it in. My other guesses involve a government blacksite, as it isn't too far from and airforce base, or a doomsday cult, what do you all think?

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@RickiTarr M. Night Shyamalan did a documentary about that place back in 2004. I think it was called "The Village" or something like that.

TonyStark, to random
@TonyStark@progressivecafe.social avatar

I already got one comment claiming solar power won’t work because “night” and another that made up nonsense about batteries.

Batteries are part of solidifying the renewable energy grid.

To those that say batteries aren’t clean or are costly, that might be partially true now, but they get cleaner and cheaper every year. Current deployments while maybe suboptimal are simply a step on the path. 1/2

Batteries are taking on gas plants to power California’s nights:
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/batteries/batteries-are-taking-on-gas-plants-to-power-californias-nights

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@TonyStark What if you told them "You know how most radios have that AM/FM switch? Well, solar panel systems work kinda like that, running off the sun during the day, and off the moon - which IS reflected sunlight, remember - at night."

We'd have to work out some explanation for how they still work just fine during the new moon, but if they took our part A, they'd probably take any part B.

evan, (edited ) to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

Which major change would a time traveler from 1974 notice most about cities today?

#EvanPoll #poll

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@evan In a city like Hanoi, the surprise would be the shops and factories with American dollars behind them.

In Lagos there'd now be way, way more people and way more pollution. Same in Mexico City.

In Durban or Johannesburg you'd notice that apartheid had vanished, and that - whoa! - Blacks are in charge.

In Gaza, you'd notice the recently destroyed buildings.

In Kharkiv you'd also notice recently bombed buildings.

So, certainly, it does depend on where the time traveler would look.

andrew, to law
@andrew@esq.social avatar

I am speechless. I am without speech.

"CAP includes all official, book-published state and federal United States case law — every volume or case designated as an official report of decisions by a court within the United States.

Our scope includes all state courts, federal courts, and territorial courts for American Samoa, Dakota Territory, Guam, Native American Courts, Navajo Nation, and the Northern Mariana Islands.”

@law

https://case.law

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@andrew @law "Our goal is to make all published U.S. court decisions freely available to the public online, in a consistent format, digitized from the collection of the Harvard Law School Library." From 1658 through 2020, with new volumes rolling out art beginning of each year.

I'm amazed, too. Not a lawyer, but a librarian, and can affirm that this was a huge, huge labor to make all that available

Saltssaltgirl, to random
@Saltssaltgirl@mas.to avatar

Don’t judge me for being in bed by 6:30, and I won’t judge you for not being in bed by 6:30.

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@Saltssaltgirl don't judge me for thinking a.m. and I won't judge you for thinking p.m.

Bodling, to philosophy
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

A new PBS documentary, “Teilhard: Visionary Scientist,” premiered this month. Paleontologist, theologian, and mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin tried to be a faithful son of the Church and a faithful scientist as he brought both those together. Challenged during his life (and after), refused permission to publish, rehabilitated by recent popes.

Streaming now on PBS.

https://religionnews.com/2024/05/13/jesuit-scientist-who-bridge-faith-and-science-recounted-in-pbs-documentary/

Bodling, to random
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

Check the door bolts!

https://apnews.com/article/boeing-space-capsule-starliner-astronauts-nasa-4742d2759c51d63c0d2ec9cbf93fce25

andrew, to law
@andrew@esq.social avatar

I reckon Copilot+ PC is going to be a product that an entire class of professional just simply can't purchase or use for work. Thinking of , , etc.

Surely the "features" will be able to be disabled, but can anyone reasonably trust that?

@law

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@andrew @uhrmann Even when they advertise the arsenic as "all natural, cholesterol free, fat free"?

CultureDesk, (edited ) to books
@CultureDesk@flipboard.social avatar

"The pile beside my bed never shrinks; at the bottom of the stack are books I've been planning to crack open for months. My shelves remain full of lingering aspirations," writes the Walrus's Michelle Cyca. She looks at the problem of unread books, and the difficulty in offloading our libraries. What do you do with your unwanted books?

https://flip.it/aLVxC5

@bookstodon #Books #Reading #Libraries #Literature

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@CultureDesk @bookstodon I've left several in Little Free Libraries.

Bodling, to random
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

In very broad terms, am I right that Ms Daniels's veracity and reliability as a witness isn't that huge a deal because the trial isn't about whether or not they had sex? The trial is about whether the defendant interfered with an election by falsifying business records.

evan, (edited ) to random
@evan@cosocial.ca avatar

How important is equality?

#EvanPoll #poll

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@evan Equally important

(which, yes, makes no sense; but it'd be anyway of smoking out the middle-of-the-road era who can't take a stand)

Bodling, to random
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

"Two railway workers in California were fired by Caltrain after the company realized they had quietly converted unused offices into secret apartments to avoid the area's brutal commutes."

Thing that gets me is that they were working for a local mass transit company. One that carries commuters. And they still thought it brutal.

https://boingboing.net/2024/04/10/railway-workers-built-secret-apartments-in-train-stations.html

Bodling, to Christianity
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

"Now the great obstacle to mutual understanding between Christianity and Buddhism lies in the Western tendency to focus not on the Buddhist experience, which is essential, but on the explanation, which is accidental and which indeed Zen often regards as completely trivial and even misleading.

“Buddhist meditation, but above all that of Zen, seeks not to explain but to pay attention, to become aware, to be mindful, in other words to develop a certain kind of consciousness that is above and beyond deception by verbal formulas–or by emotional excitement.”

Merton, Thomas. “A Christian Looks at Zen.” (1967) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 346.

Bodling, to Weather
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

Those of you planning on heading to New Hampshire or Maine for the might want to work on your alternate plans.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/05/weather/power-outages-northeast-snow-storm-maine-new-hampshire/index.html

Bodling, to Stoicism
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

"To allow governments to pour more and more billions into weapons that almost immediately become obsolete, thereby necessitating more billions for newer and bigger weapons, is one of the most colossal injustices in the long history of man. While we are doing this, two-thirds of the world is starving, or living in conditions of subhuman destitution.”

Merton, Thomas. “Peace: a Religious Responsibility.” (1962) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O’Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, p. 139.

Bodling, to TaylorSwift
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

American football season is drawing to a close soon.

And I think that Major League Baseball is missing a HUGE opportunity if it doesn't work a deal to have Taylor Swift in a skybox watching a random televised game each week. Imagine how many Swifties would start watching baseball games in hopes of another few seconds of watching her watching it. Viewership numbers through the roof!!

Bodling, to Evernote
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

I'm old enough to remember when Evernote was the hottest note app out there, free on several devices at a time, and not restricted to 50 notes.

I'm glad I'm on Obsidian now, where my notes live on my own hard drive or the cloud storage of my own choice.

vs no contest

Bodling, to politics
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

Interesting quote from a story in El Pais (US edition) about Evangelical Christian support for the last US president. It's still there, but.....

<quote>
In rural southwest Missouri, pastor Mike Leake of Calvary of Neosho – a Southern Baptist church – says support for Trump within the mostly conservative congregation seems to strengthen the more he is criticized and investigated.

“It further convinces them of their rhetoric that there is a leftist plot to undermine our nation,” Leake said. “So if everybody from the Left hates Trump, well, he must be on to something.”

Leake said many of his congregation members who strongly support Trump “are not our most dedicated members.”

“Anytime we’ve seen someone go full on MAGA, we lose them,” Leake added. “Attendance and involvement drops. Giving drops. It’s all consuming -- just as with any other idol.” </quote>

What caught my eye was that last bit where the more rabid the person gets, the less they attend church to the point of dropping out.

https://english.elpais.com/usa/2023-07-21/some-critics-see-trumps-behavior-as-un-christian-his-conservative-christian-backers-see-a-hero.html

purplepadma, to random
@purplepadma@beige.party avatar

Just been to a garden centre to buy a GARGANTUAN ceramic pot to put an olive tree in. The tree is not looking healthy and we hope that repotting it might help it recover. Thankfully this particular garden centre delivers, it’s way too big for a car. You could bathe in it

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@purplepadma Here's hoping they deliver it where you want it to end up, and not just on the curbside.

ai6yr, to random
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

Hmm, would taking the garden hose (with a "lifetime warranty") I bought in 2011 because it has cactus spine holes in it back be abusing the system? 🤔

Bodling,
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

@ai6yr "Oh, gee, sorry but in this case the hose's lifetime was only 10 years, so you've already exceeded it. But congrats on being able to use it past its lifetime."

Bodling, to animals
@Bodling@deacon.social avatar

news story from Ukraine by way of Canadian Public Broadcasting

https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/for-60-days-this-cat-survived-on-the-7th-floor-of-a-destroyed-building-in-ukraine-1.7154964

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