An Infinite Number of Monkeys

This is crafted pretty specifically for yukonsally, but hopefully it's got something for everybody.

Fuck Cancer is strongly influenced by sixties pop, seventies rock, upbeat music in general, and "angry music".

(Oh, and if there's something on here that you hate, tell me and I'll pull it.)

Really bad news on the nonprofit front. In addition to other licensing I need, it looks like being able to collect debt will involve being bonded, and for 1-4 employees that's $15,000. Which, if you're employed by a big firm who covers that, is no big deal. I'm not sure I'll pull in $15,000 in a year. But if my research is right, and it makes absolutely no sense to I assume my understanding of bureaucracy is correct, if I'm based in Alabama and I don't have any paid employees in Alabama, then they have essentially no requirements about getting licensed. I'm trying to find a lawyer with some experience to advise me on this. I'm not exactly optimistic, but sunk cost fallacy has me ready to keep trying.

The weather is getting colder in Idaho, which means mice are coming out of the fields and into our houses. We store bulk dog/cat food, books, laundry, and other mouse-popular features, in the rec room/laundry room. Last year we set out spring traps that solved the problem in a rather gruesome but concise manner. This year my mom brought home poison traps and glue traps. We opted against the poison after I explained about collateral damage and unintended consequences. And when I talked about the prolonged nature of glue traps, and how animals gnaw off their own feet while they slowly die there, I thought we'd decided not to go that route either. But apparently the plan turned out to be 'put out the glue trap without exposing the glue' and this morning we had three new friends rattling around inside the trap. Her advice was to open up the trap and empty it into the dumpster. After I made certain she knew these were not dead mice, I asked for confirmation that the plan was to drop them into the trash bin to either be crushed or starved or taken on a fun ride to the dump (the latter seems unlikely). That indeed was the plan.
I understand that co-existing with the mice is not really an option. I understand that relocating them isn't really an option. I understand not wanting to acknowledge the inevitable products of that conflict. But I don't know as I can countenance this. I've told her I'd prefer going back to the spring traps. While she's getting her shower tomorrow I may spring the three in the bin.

Okay, for real it's Hobbes and Shaw, but when I couldn't remember the name of the film that was my fallback position. I'd seen trailers and was pretty ambivalent about the project. My first comment was "I am obviously not cool enough to watch this picture". It was stuffed so full of toxic masculine energy that I started to wonder if this would be a send up maybe.

And in the end, the film itself was a little ambivalent. Over all, though, this was an above average loud dumb summer action film.

The cons:
There's a lot of male gaze, and despite the lampshade there's still a lot of 'boys will be boys' toxic masculinity. Sometimes people are Stupid For Plot or Stupid For The Funny. And they do that thing in chase scenes where everybody's going as fast as they possibly can and then one guy decides to just push the 'fasterer' button to speed up beyond maximum speed.

But our lead female actor has agency and competency, which I always appreciate, even if she is the MacGuffin. There were some really impressive set pieces (Like the escape from the Ukranian lab) and cool toys (Like the segmented motorbike omg). Idris Elba is good, but he's not putting anything special into this performance. Much like Rock and Statham. The soundtrack, despite not really being my thing, is very good at doing what it's supposed to be doing--telling you how to feel about the scene. In the end, the toxic masculinity is called out and proven to be a bad thing. Yay. Ryan Reynolds, who I didn't even know was tied to this project, was still almost the best part of the movie. And this film has the best case of Chekov's Mum I've ever seen.

All in all? Four wags out of five.

Holy shit. How did I get to be fifty?

For the first time since the move, things have gotten grey. I've finally assembled an RP group and I'm having to fight to keep up momentum. Most things just aren't worth the effort. John helped me get the last of my bookshelves together, which was great, but they're still empty while the big pile of fuck off boxes looms at the side of my room. I need outside cues to remind me to eat. But I've got a new PCP and a new psychiatrist, and I'm on the waiting list for a counselor (Should have an opening Aug/Sep). So I guess progress is being made. The back porch is screened in, so it's nice to go out late at night after the temperature has been knocked down a bit.

This time you get a twofer! Double billing! Woo!

( Booksmart )

And then there's the whiplash of going into the next auditorium to see

( John Wick 3: Parabellum )

The Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History
by Ken Gormley

This is an ensemble piece, with scholars of all stripes doing individual explorations on each president and then a final chapter discussing unifying themes and trends. I'm fully guilty of that syndrome where you know Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Ummm de dummm, Lincoln, Hmm hmm hmm, Roosevelt, Ummm, Roosevelt again, Cleveland's in there twice somewhere... This book helped a lot to establish identities behind the head of each administration, up to the Obama administration. It's also, at thirty dollars plus, the most I've spent on an ebook so far. And a worthwhile investment. I'd thought it would be more about the Supreme Court (and I'm still on the look out for that book) so I was a little disappointed at first, but this is just as rich and textured, and as much of a learning experience as I'd hoped.

I had hoped that when we moved into the new house I'd stop seeing Inky out of the corner of my eye.

He's not just hanging out in the vestibule any longer. I took him to Exclusively Cats for cremation. When he comes back, we're going to scatter him beneath the bush he liked to hide under when he snuck out.

So he got a car ride, which he loves, and then gets to go outside. His life has just gotten better since he died.