One of the things I and A talk about our Spain/Lisbon trip was how much I let my guard down in Spain and did not feel like I was going to get scammed. Sure we all take precautions in big cities, but at no point in Spain did I ever feel like a taxi driver was out to scam me, or the hotel employees for straight up lying, or a laundromat operator was not giving us the right information, or a restaurant was simply trying to push things. Heck, there was no heckling anywhere either even in middle of chaos in Barcelona. The first experience I had in Lisbon was the taxi driver scamming me into paying 5x what it should have cost to get to hotel, and then our overall hotel experience being horrible for a supposedly “boutique” 5 star. The nonstop heckling by Tuktuk drivers (though they respectfully backed out at a simple no) around old town was annoying. Within the first 2 hours in Lisbon, all my guards were back up constantly scanning, thinking and a general feeling of slight distrust. This is probably why we loved Spain so much. It’s that feeling of just letting your guard down knowing that people around you are just nice. (Yeah yeah I have heard pickpockets and Barcelona and all, but that’s a simple solve and it’s a common thing everywhere).
Macro
DC is always 95% democratic in any election. It’s about as left as it possibly can. And what does the mayor do? Cave in at the first opportunity asking the police and people to cooperate with ICE. She should be the one leading 24/7 protests on the street. instead what we have is the instant capitulation by one party while other goes on a rampage.
Houses are simply a money sink. A few weeks ago while playing with doggo in backyard I noticed that some of the joists had completely come off from a part of our deck and broken. The horror of this discovery led me to call a contractor right away, who then discovered not only I had multiple joists broken, but several support posts totally rotted (and he wasn’t cheating at all – it was covered in mulch and it was not built to code). So now to fix that, the contractor had to remove all the boards, and once he removed it, obviously we discovered more joists that are just broken or rotted. So yeah, at this point we are almost close to re-building the fucking deck and I was like if the wood and Trex cost same, might as well replace it with Trex. Houses are such money sink.
I’ve been working on photos from our Spain trip and over and over again I keep going back to Seville-Cordoba-Granada pictures. I can’t decide whether I liked the Alhambra more than Mezquita/Alcazar or the other two are better in some ways. Each of them left such an impression on me. We absolutely need to do an extended Andalusian vacation again sometime in future, but this time just focus on that area and take our time.
Remember majority of people and the people who didn’t vote, both voted for whatever is happening right now. Do not save the republic for them. Save your sanity and figure out an exit path. You will never save the majority who actively want to fuck themselves up and they sure as well will not mind dragging you with them into the abyss.
Abigail Spanberger is leading such a weird campaign for VA governor. Like she is everywhere but here in Northern VA. Woman, your only path to winning Governors race in VA goes through Northern Virginia. You better start showing up here or you end up like Kamala. On the other hand, Winsome as miserable as she is has already been in my overtly democratic city twice already and held town halls. Whoever is running Spanberger’s campaign needs a reality check.
The M4 Mac does not allow you to access expert calibration mode to calibrate the laptop display. WTF? I can access the advanced calibration mode using the option keys on any external monitor, but it simply won’t allow me to do the same to the laptop display! One of the first things I do with a new laptop is to calibrate the display manually to my taste. I can’t believe they took it away from us!
Here is how it will go: Texas will indeed redistrict their maps. Democrats will send threatening SMS begging us for more money. Newsom will try something similar in California but with a lot less conviction or drive. Some democrats will also complain death of democracy in California. Supreme Court will step in and say CA can’t do shit. Newsom folds his tail and sits on side. Texas gets what it wants. Mark my words.
WTF apple? I did not know stolen device protection was on (or forgot about it). But the side effect is that if I remove an exchange account and want to add it back, I am prevented from doing so coz apple thinks my iPhone is at an unfamiliar location and I have to wait 1 hour for “security” – pray what security are you offering by disallowing me to add an exchange account? I am at work 5 days a week and apple thinks its not familiar? turning this whole thing off right now.
Having grown up with section 144 every time there were riots in the city in India, white folks have absolutely no idea how bad things can and will get. While controversial, section 144 was always seen as a necessary action to maintain peace/law & order, don’t be under any confusion that Trump deploying National Guard to DC is not an equivalent of it. But sure, keep planning your fancy weekend protests between 10am-12pm because it cannot interfere with your end-of-summer party at the swim club.