Got pulled over Friday night for the first time in years. Nine years if memory serves, which is a pretty good stretch considering that in the years preceding that I estimate being pulled over between 30 and 50 times. (Don’t ever let people tell you you can’t change 🙂)
Last week’s warning (phew) could have been avoided if I had
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put my front license plate on (don’t like it because it makes the collision sensors wonky)
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consented to have the vehicle pass an inspection (disagreed with the service department about some very mild uneven tread wear and the necessity v. wastefulness of replacing tires which have plenty of good tread left on them)
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bothered to get the car reregistered … last October (oops)
I’m not a rebel, I’m just stubborn.
Which reminds me…
I’m currently reading: A Living Spirit of Revolt: The Infrapolitics of Anarchism by Žiga Vodovnik 📚
It’s funny how memory works. Just casually hearing the phrase “slave to the system” yesterday suddenly had me singing the lyrics to a song from my high school years that I haven’t heard in 20 years:
Lifestyle and obsession
Diamond rings get you nothin' but a lifelong lesson
And your pocket book stressin'
You’re a slave to the system, workin' jobs that you hate
For that shit you don’t need
It’s too bad the world is based on greed
That album came out in 2000 and it’s shocking how many lyrics I can still remember from it.
I was also surprised by two things yesterday:
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I had no idea Jacoby Shaddix is a Christian
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And I would never have imagined him doing a duet with Carrie Underwood
These are simple, idiosyncratic, anarchic revelations, but it’s important to let life surprise you.
Curiosity • Springtime means birds, and for a 15-month-old it also means moving from human what-does-a-birdie-say “tweet tweets” to the real ones, the sound of which catches Will’s ear throughout the day, stops him in his tracks and redirects him to the nearest window. The other day he noticed some tweet tweets coming from the front light fixture. And yesterday, he heard some brand new baby tweet tweets coming from the nest. I think he wants to be friends 🙂
“Epistemological Slop” (Take 2 on the previous post)
Although the importance of Google’s search engine has declined in recent years, it remains the world’s most important epistemological tool — the first place many people go to get answers to their questions and fill gaps in their knowledge. Google is now giving precedence in its search results to a chatbot that it knows is unreliable — that it knows spreads lies. That strikes me as being deeply unethical — and a sad testament to how far Google has fallen from its founding ideals.
If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party. The world says, Mind your own business, and Jesus says, There is no such thing as your own business. The world says, Follow the wisest course and be a success, and Jesus says, Follow me and be crucified. The world says, Drive carefully—the life you save may be your own—and Jesus says, Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The world says, Law and order, and Jesus says, Love. The world says, Get and Jesus says, Give. In terms of the world’s sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion.
most people are just stealing cows, or: bang, bang, bang, bang
