That price isn't that bad... /cries in NY

Nah we will be ok, we'll just print money for everyone (/s). Hello stagflation!

The flu keeps mutating every season, so those vaccines only work for a short time and then we have to make new ones. This virus seems like it's not mutating all that much so it's possible a vaccine will work for a longer period of time. So.... long term maybe it gets snuffed out, but a vaccine is at best a year away (assuming one can be made and produced widely)? Our consumption based economy won't hold for that long and who knows, it's possible we realize rampant consumption and constant growth is not a great economic model. Reminds me of : https://survivingprogress.com/

It's sad that there is going to be a lot of suffering with the priority now on the economy / bailouts rather than ramping up medical supplies, beds, medical staff, etc. to fight this. We need a real escape - https://www.epsilontheory.com/our-escape-story/

Looks like I'll be stockpiling some food and essentials for a month. Thankfully my job allows me to telecommute full time if I have too. Silver lining in delaying my plans to look for a place near the city / suburbs; being in the country less chance of spread I suppose.

It's a soft paywall. Open a private / incognito browser and you should be able to read it.

It is more about the journey than the destination and all those you meet along the way. The degree / promotion / new job / [achievement] you achieve marks an end to a chapter but doesn't take away your story on how you got there. For each new chapter, accept that it may not end the way you intend. Just take some time to enjoy the road along the way. Life sometimes gives you shit (and a lot of it at times) but life will pleasantly surprise you if you keep your heart and mind open. Change is inevitable so be the change you wish to be and accept change you cannot control. Shimmering can be a good time to reflect.

At least that's how I have come to terms with that feeling. I apologize if this comes off like a bad self help book, but this is something I have though a lot about when reflecting on my own life.

Getting paid to make meme's, what a world we live in. It's terrifying how effective they can be just wish they would stay neutral and funny.

Good recommendation! Dune might be a bit heavy for the group and the half of us that are Sci-Fan's have read it already.

oh definitely! I will probably get lambasted for not showing up to the club for a year (acquisitions will do that ugh) but will report back on my review.

Thank you for this! Earth Abides looks really interesting. My last few books I have suggested have been flops but who knew Ray Bradbury (Dandelion Wine) and Margaret Atwood (Stone Mattress) would disappoint.

I added all the books we have read to the post. Funny enough I forgot a bunch of them ha! Zombies seem to be a popular theme too.

300-350 max or around there and no series.

Fried never meant for peeps to dwell on nihilism but to overcome it I think, eh he probably looked into the abyss a bit too long. Meaning and satisfaction IMO come from the individual and no one else.

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a great example of Absurdism. Also Red Dwarf. Pretty much there is no meaning and its absurd for humans to place a fiction of meaning on the universe. But hell, we'll make our own meaning for this life anyways. Take that you stupid universe and carry on! Makes my life a bit better in a more freeing way and gives me ammo to rile up all those lawful types (have fun trying to impose human top-down order onto chaos!) .

I find absurdism as a philosophy is a lot more fun personally. (grammar fix bleh)

So cute and yet so deadly! My one cat kinda looks like that. Interesting that these kitties look so similar to house cats but are definitely wild and not domesticated.

What happened to the peanut on the subway? He was as-salted!

Thanks! Yeah got a lot of light pollution around where I live, hopefully I can get out to some national parks nearby for more darkness. I used my pixel phone (1st gen) for that photo. Could have been sharper but it was hot that night (ugh heat waves). I personally like the crescent moon shots, you get lot more texture with the shadows and contrast, while a full moon seems more flat.

Actually a cool idea would be to composite the crescent moon shots together to get a really nice textured look for a full moon.

These look great! Oh man this reminds me I need to get my Newtonian telescope calibrated. I just started the hobby last year. Any good ways to see the galaxy? Going to see if I can use my new pixel phone with the telescope to see how the night vision feature works.

Here is what I got last year:

Violence won't get you anywhere as it will harden their beliefs and force them more into their "tribe" (because humans are tribal anyways). I would suggest listening to this: https://www.npr.org/2018/09/24/651052970/how-a-rising-star-of-white-nationalism-broke-free-from-the-movement.

It was only after he began attending New College of Florida that Black began to question his own point of view. Previously, he had been home-schooled, but suddenly he was was exposed to people who didn't share his views, including a few Jewish students who became friends.

Black's new friends invited him over for Shabbat dinner week after week. Gradually, he began to rethink his views. After much soul-searching, a 22-year-old Black wrote an article, published by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2013, renouncing white nationalism.

Also, if someone is looking for a fight like these guys the best way to counter it is to be kind because they don't expect it at all.

Currently Darkest Dungeon since my beefy PC has a busted mother board :'(. Otherwise I would be playing Total Warhammer 2. Love me some strategy games or any game that has some difficulty.

Ditto.

True. But more chaos in the region doesn't bode well and it is the unforeseen consequences that lead to war be it now and/or when new regimes are born from it. The world is complex and chaotic enough as it is and this is just more fuel piled onto the fire. I'll try not to brood too much ha, my new year's resolution is to not worry about events that I have little control / influence over. Ironically, learned that from my management courses this year.

Would be nice to have the new year start without a possibility of a new war, but alas here we are.

It was a cool class, though it was years ago ha. We could use any medium we wanted (oil, water color, charcoal, etc.) and the premise was using science reasoning to make the fantasy art more grounded to be believable. So one assignment was create an alien landscape. We had to think about the ecology of an alien planet and how the creatures would evolve there and try not to think of our biosphere if we could help it to make it more alien (this is really hard to do).

In the case of Godzilla 98 he followed the route of an iguana and see how it would mutate and then added feline features (snout and body composition) while using some of the elements from classic Godzilla. To be fair the classic Godzilla design was based on a man in suit so it made sense to go from a different angle in CGI. But alas us G fans are a fickle bunch and like our classic design lol.