Saturday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Saturday, October 30, 2021
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56 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Democrats agreed this week to historic investments in healthcare, education, infrastructure, childcare, climate fixes, housing and mass transit.
Thanks to Biden’s stimulus and recovery bills, unemployment is down 5%, wages up 8%, record small business startups, record number of jobs created in first year of presidency, childhood poverty cut in half, record household savings, historic worker leverage, and COVID hospitalizations/death down to successful vaccine push getting 76%+ partially or fully vaccinated, and endless Afghan war stopped.
Yet all we hear from braindead journalists is doom and gloom.
Des Moines has a weird local tradition called Beggar’s Night.
Beggar’s Night is not Halloween. It is the night before Halloween. Why? I haven’t a clue. It just is. A local thing.
You have to be in on it to be prepared. Super awesome kids show up at you door in really cool outfits wanting free candy the evening before Halloween.
The first year I was totally caught off guard. Thankfully, I had some treats, but wt actual f is going on? I had no clue. Next day at work I asked my colleagues what happened. It’s Beggar’s Night, they said. As if that explained it.
As I came to learn, Beggar’s Night is basically Halloween only just a day earlier. Why? (It is very cute, btw.)
I developed a theory that I still prefer and ostentatiously have never investigated: if kiddos get their free candy on the 30th, then mom and dad are free get their freak on the 31st. And just for the cost of a babysitter that has to deal with newly sugar addicted crashing kids.
Maybe DM is chock full of swinger couples going to key parties? Or Satanistic rituals? Invoking the Deep Ones? Cthulu worship? Could be. I have no goddamn clue. Nobody let me in on the secret.
It’s like Devil’s Night in Detroit only one night earlier and way more wholesome. (Or is it wholesome at all? Dun dun da.)
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/30/trump-2020-election-steal-presidency-coup-inside-story
Covid bioweapon claims ‘scientifically invalid’, US intelligence reports
Maybe this will convince all the Q’ers. That’ll be the day.
A few days back I offered up a challenge at the dead end of another open thread. Pitch a song you love and tell us why it means a lot to you personally.
Crying Scene by Aztec Camera.
It was the late 90s. I was conducting my business tightly. Living just south of downtown.
I ran into a neighbor once and again in the building – thought she was a bad-ass. One day I was downtown outside of work having a cig. She walked by. “Hey, neighbor! Fancy meeting you here.” Turned out she worked a block away.
One morning I was on my way out and gonna drive downtown and spend big bucks on parking because I was lazy. She was there too. “Hey, you wanna lift? I’m driving.”
We got to talking about what music to listen to on the way. Check this out and I fired up The Crying Scene because it was in my head. She liked it too. Fun song to sing along to.
It became a routine thing. We would sing ourselves to work. Work sucks and anything you can do to make it less awful is good in my book.
It became clear she liked me in a way I did not reciprocate. I was comfortable with friend.
It got kind of vaguely weird. I knew where she was coming from. I have crushed unrequited a few times. It’s no shame at all. But I had to be honest.
I always associate that time with the Crying Scene.
We ended up okay. Reconnected as friends. Karaoked our way to work.
The Crying Scene connects me to a definite place and time. On Franklin halfway between Hennepin and Lyndale in nineteen ninety something year.
‘Yeah, we’re spooked’: AI starting to have big real-world impact, says expert
Good thing I’m gonna die (relatively) soon.
I’m actually OK with this decision.
.
.
.
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As long as it’s OK for every human being in the world to dump their fresh feces on this “comedian’s” head every time he is seen in public.
@OzarkHillbilly: This case would have been dismissed on summary judgment in the US. Ward seems to be an awful human being but a comedian has the right to make jokes about a public figure.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I read the decision. The court reasoned that even if Ward’s words led people to vilify Gabriel, a reasonable person wouldn’t conclude that would lead to discrimination against the child.
Sure. It would only lead his classmates to torment him to the point of suicide, that’s all.
@James Joyner: Like I said, “fresh feces”. Free speech is not and never has been consequence free.
I met a retail clerk in a record store in 1981. She mocked me. Dinged my pants and my boots. I object: my boots were totally on point. I liked it. I am not a masochist or submissive, she just had a very charming way of taking you down a few notches. I really liked it.
We ended up talking about Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly and rockabilly.
She was in and around the scene. I always chatted with her. I was extremely smitten but was trying to act cool. (The flip of the last anecdote.)
We connected and were a thing for awhile. Didn’t work in the end.
I will always remember her giving me shit the first time. It made me laugh true.
The only thing I bought that first day she dissed me in the store was the 45 single Ceremony by Joy Division / New Order after Ian died.
Ceremony is a great song.
via Anne Laurie,
That look on her face… Yeah, that was me.
Exclusive: Derek Chauvin jurors speak out for the first time, recalling ‘traumatic experience’ and that light-bulb moment
I’ve never seen the whole thing, never will. I watched just enough to see the look of utter indifference on Chauvin’s face (and another cop’s face) and that was enough.
@Flat Earth Luddite (Friday open forum) wrote:
Now this is the kind of performative assholery I fully support!
Congratulations on the anniversary.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Chauvin was smirking.
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have watched all of it. Twice.
I fully respect you for not wanting to. For me, I had to. That’s my city. I had to understand it all.
I had to.
I was not in a good place after watching. It was slow, deliberate murder. I was very really angry and very heartbroken.
And I grew up with thumper asshole Mpls cops.
@CSK: I didn’t watch it long enough to see his face make that change, just the first 30 seconds or so.
@de stijl: I’ve seen much over my years, enough to know I’d seen all I needed to. I’ve seen people get shot and killed in real life, and don’t need to watch any death porn*. I watched the Willard Scott video just because I wanted to know how obvious it was that the cop was trying stage the scene. He was. Never watched the Tamir Rice video. Nor the Jacob Blake video, nor Ahmed Arbery, nor the many others. I just don’t need to.
Some folks feel the need to, to “bear witness”. I get it. I understand. Me? I bore witness in real time. That’s enough.
*I like a good action flick as much as the next guy, but it’s different when it’s real, it just is.
This is a question for WR, Eddie, and anyone else involved in film and video production. My wife was reading me the latest on the Rust shooting and she feels it is all on the assistant director. I said that while he most certainly deserves loads of blame, the armorer is responsible for gun safety and she can’t walk away from that. If she didn’t think she could keep people safe she should have quit. My wife interprets this as excusing a 50 year old white male to put the blame on a young inexperienced woman. (I don’t think I’m taking any blame from him. He was the director on the set and handled the guns, but I’m not going to win that argument.) what do you guys think? (Assume my wife’s argument is better than My poor attempts to present it here, as she is an intelligent and well spoken person.)
@OzarkHillbilly:
I shied away initially, but I had to in this instance. I absolutely get you and respect your decision.
But I had to. It is my hometown.
That was flat-out murder. Shit, now I’m seeing it again in my head. (Not your fault – I did it to myself.)
Reliving it underlines my resolve.
When I lived there, there were a lot of Chauvin wannabes amongst the so-called “protect and serve” crowd. A lot of folks who seemingly took pleasure in violence. Enjoyed it immensely. It takes a hard-hearted person to kneel on someone’s neck for 9+ minutes until they die.
Thumper cops in Minneapolis go back decades. Chauvin upped the ante.
@MarkedMan: The armorer bears some responsibility. If she was unqualified or too inexperienced, so does the person who hired her. And yes, the AD deserves some responsibility as well. And of course, Alec Baldwin. Basically everyone involved in the handling and use of this firearm on the set bears some responsibility.
How much responsibility is the question. Having never been on a film set I could not begin to say.
@MarkedMan:
Let her type it out. (Not that I don’t trust your take.)
Shared responsibility, shared liability is my initial take.
—
I have worked for two criminal organizations. One rhymes with Bells Largo both as a corporate drone and as a consultant / contractor. As a corp drone, I hauled my sorry ass up the ladder up to AVP in rhymes with Bells Largo, but banks are notorious for handing out AVP titles like candy. I was a nobody in data analytics. Later as a contractor.
Also as a contract consultant for an Icelandic bank that no longer exists because it was so corrupt. I worked for them up until a half-year before they blew up.
I have no financial liability. But do I have moral and ethical responsibility? For WF (sorry, BL) mortgage, I helped them get immensely more efficient at identifying people who were most likely to refinance in 2005-7. That was my primary job focus.
In 2007-8 I built out a portal for folks to analyze accounts for rhymes with Handshanki.
Both were later to be revealed as corrupt. Bells Largo in retail banking moreso than mortgages, but rhymes with Handshanki went out of business entirely and got subsumed into the Iceland state.
I get mortgage banking – made my bones there. I get analytical portals – it’s what I did for a living.
I chose two very bad gigs in a row. For entities that were culpable in the 2008 financial market implosion.
I got paid fairly handsomely to usher it in to some notable effect. What is my responsibility?
@OzarkHillbilly: @de stijl:
I can’t watch it, either beyond a few clips. I suppose it’s a cliché but while I write pretty horrific stuff, I have very little tolerance for real life violence, or even fictional violence.
@de stijl:
It isn’t just violence, it is also control. Control is as important if not more so.
@MarkedMan: I think there’s plenty of blame to go around. Yes to the armorer, and yes to the AD. How much to each and to anyone else? Hard to say without knowing more about the chain of events.
If the armorer was so inexperienced she had no idea what she was doing, then yes, a lot of blame goes to her. But also a little slack, because she might well have been so inexperienced she didn’t know she didn’t know what she was doing, which doesn’t excuse her but weighs more heavily on the AD.
But let’s not forget whoever hired someone with so little experience…
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t know the law in Canada but, in the United States, you’re allowed to counter speech you find repugnant with countervailing speech, social rejection, or even boycotts. Assault, on the other hand, is a crime.
@wr: I still can’t get past the fact that there live bullets in these guns. Why would there ever be a live bullet in a prop gun? Or anywhere on a set? My first reaction was something nefarious but given what irresponsible man-boys most gun nuts are I suspect it is more likely to be a mix of someone treating the guns like toys and the typical “the rules don’t apply to me attitude” that presage so many tragedies
@OzarkHillbilly:
I didn’t watch the whole video, either, but I did see Chauvin smirk when he looked at the crowd that had gathered.
I think I might give up on “Foundation”. While I don’t expect visual media to play out the same way as the books it is based on, taking at least some of the spirit might have been nice. But OK, how about as a story in and of itself? God, what a shouty mess. (You ever notice that when film writers can’t come up with a good motivation for the characters to take some action but they don’t want to give up the super cool visual they’ve cooked up, they have the characters, no matter how mature/self possessed/intelligent they are supposed to be, start shouting at each other like sulky 10 year olds?)
Anyway, as near as I can tell this is a story about how an empire collapses and only people with poorly understood psychic powers can do anything about it. History is just random chance and at any given moment how it plays out is totally dependent on the random cast of characters that happen to be around and the chance roll of cosmic dice.
@MarkedMan:
I’m several episodes behind, and feel no urgency to see them.
Foundation has the… foundations (I’m sorry!)… of a good show, but the execution is lacking. It’s not bad, it’s just… meh. It’s a tangle of excellent possibilities in want of a skilled knitter.
I don’t know who the showrunner is, but whoever they are, they failed. I would have loved to see everything else remain the same, but have someone like Ronald D. Moore wrangling it into a coherent story.
Interesting piece at WAPO on something called the Council for National Policy, founded in 1981, and one of the seemingly hundreds of shadowy groups connecting RW activists, pols, and donors. The piece is long, too long. I guess if you’re paid to generate column inches you dump everything in the notebook. But the article is well worth a skim. The CNP is apparently one of the larger and more influential groups. Pence is a participant, along with Leonard Leo, Jim DeMint, Ralph Reed, Ginni Thomas, Tim LaHaye (Left Behind series), Richard Viguerie, etc. The article is a testament to the degree to which these people believe their own bullshit, or at least sincerely pretend to. This bunch jumped on election “integrity” long before it became fashionable.
Two of the officials are quoted as saying that liberal networks are “far larger and better funded than those on the right”. They of course mention Soros. But you have to remember that when they speak of left institutions they include, say, BLM and The Sierra Club, but also the American Bar Association, the Ford Foundation, Yale, and so on, i.e., everyone who isn’t right. And these days even the U. S. Chamber of Commerce donates to Ds, but only because the GOPs went nuts.
These groups, and the money they help spread around, are why conservatives have so much power, not grass roots resistance to CRT.
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve never been involved in accident investigation, but they always a seem to come down to a chain of causation. Had any one link in the chain been broken, no accident. Everyone in the chain bears responsibility.
@OzarkHillbilly:
God damn it, you’re onto us. It was supposed to be a surprise. Who spilled the beans?
Hardly worth the bother, now.
I’m faced with a conundrum.
I’m working for an amazing company, with a good wage, great people, and excellent benefits. But I hate one of the tasks I’ve been assigned. My manager knows this, the VP of HR knows this–but I don’t think they understand just how much hate it. Yesterday, I took an unpaid day off because–on top of everything else going on–I couldn’t tolerate working for that department.
I went to Craigslist and looked at postings in marketing (what I used to do). I found one that looked really good–but was past the submission deadline. On a whim, I sent a quick e-mail with a “Cliff’s Notes” bullet list of why they should look at me.
The owner replied and told me to send in an actual resume & cover letter–they’re still interviewing.
It’s more money. It’s a position of authority (manager/director). It’s an industry I’m skilled in and passionate about. I know nothing about the benefits (that’s suddenly important at my age).
In my youth (like… 10 years ago), I wouldn’t have hesitated for a second. 2 years ago, when I started with my current employer, I wouldn’t have entertained the idea for a second.
Now…? I have no clue.
@MarkedMan: If you deal with safety, part of your job is standing up to people who dismiss it because they don’t understand the real risks. Even powerful people.
There’s plenty of blame to go around, but the majority has to go to the armorer. If the AD understood the risks and overrode her recommendations, she should have resigned. If he didn’t understand the risks, she should have halted things until he did.
Keep in mind that a lot of the crew had just walked off the job due to safety concerns. It isn’t even like there weren’t good examples.
@Mu Yixiao: Interview, and find out about the benefits. Maybe swap the order, since the benefits package is likely to be just sending a prepared email, and everyone would rather not bother if you would have to turn it down based on that.
There’s a good chance that there’s a reason they are still interviewing and accepting candidates — some red flag that makes good people walk away — in which case it’s no longer a dilemma.
Also, it sounds like you don’t dislike that one assignment, you resent it. And that’s what leads to burnout.
You need to protect yourself: Don’t do work you resent. Either find a way to not resent it, or get out of it. Dump that assignment onto a coworker who has the emotional bandwidth, fix the problems of the assignment, change your attitude (very hard), or leave.
The answer might just be that you are already at your limits and you need to make time to recharge — exercise, meditate, vacation, whatever — and it won’t be a problem anymore.
@Mu Yixiao: What is it about that one assignment?
@MarkedMan:
The way I work–my work personality–is “give me the goal, tell me the boundaries, and let me go”.
This assignment is “follow every procedure to the letter, give precise information (which I often don’t have), and document every detail.
I am the wrong person for the assignment–and the work is suffering because of it. It’s like asking Jackson Pollock to do technical drawings for the space shuttle.
@gVOR08:
On paper, the piece isn’t in the newspaper but in this week’s Washington Post Magazine, which comes with the physical newspaper delivery on Saturday morning. I haven’t read it yet, but plan to.
@Gustopher:
Just to be clear: I’m more “venting” than “asking for advice”. That being said, you bring up some good points (many of which I’ve already thought about, but it’s good to talk about them in case others are in a similar situation).
If they ask me to interview, I will. If for no other reason than for the self-esteem boost.
I understand what you’re saying. However, this position is rather niche–mixing arts, industry, politics, and marketing–so I absolutely understand not being able to find someone who fits. Plus it’s a small company, and the official deadline was just last week–small companies are much more flexible in accepting late-comers.
Yep.
But everything else about the company I’m working for is great. Hence the problem.
Ah… and there’s the rub. I’m 53 and past my warranty. “Protecting myself” has gained a whole new meaning in the last couple years. Where I am is “safe”. If I stay there, I have vacation & sick leave, amazing insurance (which I’ve been putting to the test this year), a great retirement plan, stock vestment, etc. On the other hand, I’m in a boring position with assignments I hate. On the gripping hand, the Powers That Be all know me and are impressed with what I’ve done, so there’s a possibility of moving up to much better things in the company.
If I’m offered the position at the new company, I’ll move directly into a place that’s better suited to me, but there’s no guarantee of long-term security (the company is 10 years old).
1 & 2 are not an option (I don’t have the authority).
3 isn’t “attitude”, it’s “the way I’m built”.
4 scares the shit out of me–and this is coming from someone who twice accepted a new job and moved half-way across the country after a 5-minute conversation. And once, I moved half-way around the world after a couple days of thinking it over.
If I’m asked to interview, I will–if for no other reason than to satisfy my curiosity. If I’m offered the job… maybe I take it? Maybe I use it for leverage where I am?
I don’t know. I’ll see what happens.
What strikes me is that this is the first time in my life that I’m hesitating. This “being grown up” stuff sucks.
@Mu Yixiao: If you’re not a good match to the job, it’s time to look for another. Reaching the point that I realized that I would never be able to do what I’m best at was why I decided to leave Woosong–the school at which I had worked for the longest interval in my entire career teaching (such as it was, career-wise). The fact that my mom died 30 days or so after I got off the plane at PDX and was needed as estate representative was simply a confirmation that the choice was timely.
@Mu Yixiao:
The way you’re built means you’ll do a crappy job of it. Your attitude is whether you let the fact that you’re doing a crappy job bother you.
Attitude is a loaded word, but I don’t know a better word.
Accept that you’re the wrong person, and you’ll do your best but your best won’t be great, and that you’ll disappoint people including yourself. No one is going to be great at all parts of the job.
Or you can build a negative feedback loop. Which is way easier, and how most people approach these situations and if it’s for a short time you can grit your teeth and push through it.
But it’s all about how you react emotionally to the situation, which is something you have more control of than most people think.
I’m 51, basically the same age. I have health issues. I get that protecting yourself involves keeping your health insurance bright and sparkly, but it also means insuring that you stay in a mental spot where you can work in the future, because COBRA is expensive and runs out after 18 months anyway. A lot of people don’t weigh that second part as well as the first.
@Mu Yixiao: maybe use the new opportunity as leverage to get relieved of the duty you don’t want to have? Depends on your relationship with your boss (or whomever can change your assignment) of course, but a frank discussion of “I don’t want to leave but this assignment is so bad for me that I’m looking” might be enough to get them to change it. And if not then you have some additional valuable information about how your current employer is willing to treat you. Better to leave at 53% past sell by than try to do so at xx% past at some time in the future when the assignment becomes completely intolerable (the chronic suffering will worsen the burnout over time) or when the company demonstrates in an additional way that they don’t give a shit about you.
Yep, it’s different when it’s real, it just is. Hearing the screams of those broken children, picking them up off the street, wishing I could make it all go away for them and knowing it would never go away for them.
I never want to go thru anything like that again, and just watching a video…
It’s not PTSD, but it brings back so much I’d rather never think about again.
Yes James, I know this. BUT… You and I both know that some people are asking for a good old fashioned b*tch slapping.
I was working a job once where there was this guy, pushing every one of my buttons. Seeing how far he could go to “punk my ass.” A day came when I finally had enough. I didn’t exactly slap the piss out of him, I pulled them so that my fingers only grazed his face, but it was enough to let him know that the next time, he would suffer more than the laughter of all the carpenters he worked with as he stumbled back and fell on his ass.
I could have been fired for it. I walked right up to the line and some would say I crossed it. But the bullshit ended.
Some people need to get the shit slapped out of them. You know it. I know it. We all know it. And this so called “comedian” needs to be reminded of it.
@gVOR08: Yep. That’s why so many are involved. The idea is that SOMEBODY will say something. To bad that most will just go along.
@Mu Yixiao: Asking quetions and listening to answers costs you nothing.
@Gustopher:
My fault for not expressing this clearly.
I’m not built to allow myself to be okay with doing a crappy job. It’s (I would say literally) not in my DNA. I’m (sometimes) okay with half-assing stuff when it’s just me. When it’s a customer? Dear gods, no.
The way you’re built means you’ll do a crappy job of it. Your attitude is whether you let the fact that you’re doing a crappy job bother you.
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
I support 12 departments. Some of the tasks are boring (e.g,, filing folders–but there are a couple really sexy women working a couple meters away, so I don’t mind), some of the tasks are fun (I enjoy filling in at the front desk and answering phones), and some of the tasks are absolutely engaging.
Exactly one of them is a problem. I don’t hate the job. I hate this one task. My manager knows it, the VP of HR knows it–but there’s nobody else that can do it (not because I’m amazing, we just don’t have anyone else available).
@Erik:
That’s a big part of why I’m going through with this. I don’t want to leave where I am (the company seriously rocks), but perhaps this will make them realize just how serious I am about hating this one task.
Thanks to everyone who’s listening and responding. As I said above, I’m mostly venting. Saying things out loud (or typing them out where others can see) helps me to figure out what I’m thinking. And all of the responses make me come up with answers.
@MarkedMan:
She holds 99.44% of the blame–because her responsibility was to make sure that exactly this didn’t happen.
This morning, I read a statement from her lawyer saying she didn’t know that there was live ammo anywhere on the set. That’s the most damning thing I’ve heard yet.
She’s saying that she “didn’t know” that cast & crew were taking the guns and using them off-hours. Which means…
* She didn’t have the guns properly secured
* She allowed unauthorized persons to use the guns for fun
* She didn’t check that the guns hadn’t been tampered with
* She allowed the guns to enter the set without confirming they were safe
* She didn’t confirm that the guns had no ammo in them
* She allowed a gun to be handed to an actor–and called out as “safe”–without confirming it.
She failed to do everything she was hired to do. Yes, the blame falls on her.
I’ve never been an armorer, but I used to be a rigger. It was 100% my responsibility to make sure that nobody got injured (or killed) by hung or “flying” elements. That ranged from “not dropping a screw from 100 feet above the stage” to “not crushing performers under a (literal) ton of scenery flying in at high speeds” And a large portion of that was going on during a live show, when there are only seconds to assess the situation.
It was also my job to do regular checks of all the equipment–including visually and manually surveying every hand line and wire rope on every baton in the facility, and regularly adjusting brake tension on every line.
In a decade on the job–doing thousands of shows–I can think of only 3 types of injuries*
1) Slivers from the “hemp” lines (actually manila)
2) Blisters from pulling lines without gloves (or properly leathered skin)
3) Blood blisters when hands didn’t get their fingers out of the way when dropping steel brick on top of other steel brick.
And even those were rare.
==============
* Not including the two idiots who cut their hands when slicing bagels for break–but they were props crew, not under my authority.
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s almost exactly what I said in my “application” for the new job. 🙂
Good night everyone.
Thanks for letting me vent.
@Michael Reynolds:
I’ve noticed a similar thing with myself in my reactions to real-life versus movie violence. I’ve watched some of the most violent stuff in films and TV without feeling revulsion or disgust. Yet this desensitization breaks down when I see footage of real incidents. I remember once seeing a news report featuring some disturbing images of someone badly injured during an auto collision, and it made me nauseous. I’ve never watched the video of George Floyd’s murder. In 2020, when I was still having breathing problems from Covid, I was seriously worried that watching it would give me a panic attack (as simply hearing about Nick Cordero’s death from Covid did). Fictional movies never come close to doing that to me.
@Mu Yixiao:
That’s pride, not dna, and it’s changeable (but hard to change). Have you tried motivating yourself with spite rather than pride?
Also, is task 12 a permanent part of the job, or are they hiring up more people? Makes all the difference in the world.
I’m going to assume you work with the HR department, and that you’re not chatting with HR because of your poor performance on this task… otherwise, the only reason this would be a hard is that they’ve installed a little cocaine dispenser in your cubicle and now you’re addicted.
@Mimai:
Oh, how I wish I could claim credit, but a friend in my cancer survivor group showed it to me. Thinking I’m going to have to emulate him.
I’ve been known to remind people, “everyone has an asshole…mine just happens to be ventral.” At my colonoscopy last year, the team discovered a temporary tattoo below my left kidney that said “wrong, flip patient over.” Yes, I am that kind of asshole. I may be sick, but I’m going to have fun with it.
And a very belated but very heartfelt thanks for all the positive vibes from everyone yesterday.
@Mu Yixiao: 🙂
@Gustopher:
WTF?!