Some of us are crazy, some of us have lost touch with reality, most of us think we're OK but we're not and all of us think we can't leave because we can't survive outside the hospital.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/46745198
Inspired by a post by TotallyNotSpez
https://lemmy.world/post/46126682
I've been away for several months now. I'm happy to be back here to read and watch the fun you guys have. I'm not as proficient as your moderators (who are a great bunch of people) but I'll be on here more often now.
Hope you are all doing good after a long hard winter. I still have snow in my yard but at least I've been able to go out to enjoy warm weather, sunlight and fresh air more often now.
This is the first thing I thought of when the corn memes started.
I spend more money on Halloween than I do on Christmas. And every year I realize it more and more ... I'm spending money on Halloween to share it all with a bunch of strangers and their children rather than on my own family and friends.
I already give lots to my family throughout the year, I don't need a special holiday to justify those relationships. I used to spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars on decorations, suppers, gifts and doing things for family in or around Christmas and none of it ever made a damned difference. I still love my family but it wasn't because of Christmas ... it was because they are my family. I don't do any of that any more and you know? I still have the same level of appreciation for my family and they do the same for me ... without all the BS of Christmas fanfare.
But on Halloween, I'm giving more to random strangers I don't even know or will probably never meet again during the year ... and all just for the sake of being nice to them.
So now I find that Halloween is a more giving and fun holiday than Christmas. It's made me realize just how wholesome Halloween is compared to the commercialized hellhole that Christmas has become.
All my Youtube feeds are filling up with AI videos made within the past month or two. It's just an endless stream of newly created content made by people who are just chasing after just a little bit of attention. It's all just rehashed crap, remade videos scraped from previous videos, remixed and remade again and again.
It wasn't so noticeable a year ago but now it's getting worse. It's just an endless stream of new AI videos and there is more and more every day.
A year ago, it was decently made AI video with a bit of realistic content ... now it's just all made up crap of all sorts filled with all kinds of made up information to sound as authentic as possible. It's so easy to just scrape together a bunch of content, send it all through an AI and make it sound like some sort of authentic documentary that would fool the least attentive viewer.
Then realized the live stream had been going non stop for the past five years.
Every time I go to cut food, I always get annoyed by the hand opening. I'm not always handling the board so much to need a hand hold. It's always laying flat. The only time I need the hand hold is when I pick it up.
Then today, I realized ..... it's a melee weapon.
I just finished watching a couple of the Bourne movies and I always enjoy a good fantasy break from reality once in a while. But as I watched it again, I began to notice more and more plot holes to everything and it became a game to me as I watched and noticed how in so many instances, Jason Bourne just wanders around in public with no masks or facial changes, yet in the background, they keep showing these sophisticated control stations by the CIA/FBI/Secret agencies that can monitor and scan literally anything and everything all at once. I know its movie magic but the film at one extreme leads us to believe that they can monitor everything ... yet on the other hand, their key suspect is able to just wander around in public without anyone seeing him.
So I thought to myself how it would be hilarious if someone digitally remastered one of the Bourne movies and turned every single character and person that appears into Jason Bourne ... even the women, black guys, Middle Eastern people, Asians, big fat people, children, old ladies ... main characters, officers, government officials, the president of the United States, waiters, agents, soldiers, background people ... make them all Jason Bourne.
@PugJesus@piefed.social - I thought you'd enjoy this one
I was visiting friends and I needed to find a motorcycle shop in the area. Found this shop called The Cycle Therapist and the first thing I thought of was the SNL skit with Jeopardy with Alex Trebek and Sean Connery.
I began calling the shop
"Cycle The Rapist"
It's Mel Brooks' 99th Birthday today ... for anyone that's ever memed, they are sure to have referenced Mel Brooks at one point or another.
Modern comedy wouldn't be the same without him.
Happy Indigenous Peoples Day to everyone. I know right now there is not much cause to celebrate with the passing of an Ontario government Bill 5 and Federal Government Bill C5 that directly threaten First Nation lands, people and rights.
We've always dealt with issues, events, changes and developments ... it's become our ongoing legacy to constantly fight and we are and will continue to fight on.
What everyone doesn't understand is that we are not just fighting for ourselves, its a fight to protect the future of our people and of all Ontario and all Canada as well. Unrestrained and uncontrolled resource development only destroys the land, air and water ... the same land, air and water we all share no matter our race, group or identity.
It's also a fight for the future, as from the quote from Wendell Berry ....
“We do not inherit the earth from our fathers, we are borrowing it from our children.”
The quote is often attributed as a wise old Native saying or proverb but in actual fact the modern quote comes from an environmentalist in the environmental, ecological movement.
Saying the environment to save ourselves and the future generations to come is not just an idea central to First Nation belief systems .... it's a belief system by those who can see beyond the length of their own lifespans.
Happy Indigenous Peoples Day everyone.
I'm up in Canada so we are all just on edge watching to see what will happen tomorrow for mass protesting.
Whatever happens, everyone stay safe, protect and guard yourself from danger and keep aware of your surroundings. Stay with a small group of allies and keep yourselves safe.
If you are not prepared and don't know what you are doing .... stay back and don't become front line fodder.
If you are prepared and equipped, stay safe, protect yourself, run and hide if you must. I'd rather see you running than to be put in danger.
Whatever you do tomorrow to take part, we're all cheering for our American brothers and sisters standing for democratic rights and fighting against fascism.
I just saw Star Trek Enterprise Season 4 Episode 18: 'In A Mirror Darkly' and I noticed that someone that looks vaguely like Karl Marx leads the mob to raid the Vulcan ship.
Also on another note .... what the hell kind of fever dream did the writers drift into with this side story that lasted a few episodes? They just come out of left field for no apparent reason.
I work in a bit of construction, building and renovations. I've gone through several health and safety training over the years. Some of it has to do with protecting yourself from sharp objects and flying debris. There is quite a bit of training in protecting your eyes, especially when you are around metal saws, wood saws and anything to do with cutting machinery. You don't want small particles or objects flying into your face, especially onto your eye.
Which is why there are so many stringent regulations on eye protection and the technology is so far advanced now that you can wear eye protection that can protect your eye from flying debris or objects like a nail gun fired right at your eye.
Nail gun on safety glasses test
A broken angle grinder blade can travel at extremely high speeds, potentially reaching 120 m/s (430 kmph) or even higher. That's basically a small piece of hardened material flying like a knife through the air that can slice through your skin, into your bone or puncture your eye and blind you.
Worker's angle grinder blade snaps and gets stuck in safety glasses
If you are wondering which safety glasses to get ... buy them at a hardware store. They are more likely to carry actual safety glasses. Department stores or discount stores sell 'safety glasses' but they are usually not industry rated and are only meant to protect against dust and liquids - they will not protect you against high velocity impact.
Look for safety glasses with anything marked ANSI Z87+, sometimes written Z87.1+ (note the plus) rated or CSA Z94.3 rated are ensured to safely withstand a direct high energy strike. These glasses are meant to supply workers everywhere so you can buy these for about $10 to $30 depending style and type. Buy them in bulk and they're much cheaper overall (just make sure they well marked and approved). Well worth the money to save your eyes.
After all this work, effort and technological development to get to the point where there can be political protests on the street and police and security forces can fire small projectiles at people and put their faces and eyes in danger. Small pellets, bean bags or tear gas canisters can give you a bruise or even cut you if they hit your back, legs, arms or chest. But these things can potentially blind people if they are hit in the face. Police are told not to aim them at people's faces but in a chaotic situation where people on all sides are angry, anxious, tired and afraid, anything can happen. In some parts of the world, police and security forces are directed to purposefully aim at people's heads and faces.
Safety glasses will protect you from these low velocity munitions from police. If they are firing things at people that are faster and stronger than this, then they are using lethal force and basically shooting at people with shotguns. If your glasses can stop flying objects, then they are firing non-lethal or less-lethal rounds .... anything stronger or faster than that and no safety glasses can protect you and your whole body and not just your eyes are in danger. Basically, if an object can be fired through a pair of industry rated safety glasses ... the same object can blast through your skull.
In the workplace, I can't walk into a potentially dangerous situation without wearing safety glasses .... but at a public protest where police are firing things without much control? No one is told of the danger and in some jurisdictions people are discouraged or punished for trying to wear any kind of safety gear. Even in first world countries like the US, Germany, France and Canada, people wearing safety glasses at a protest are targeted as terrorists, criminals, instigators, or potential violent criminals.
I really don't care what anyone has to say on the matter whether for legal, moral, ethical, political or security reasons ... if you are joining a major protest anywhere in the world from now on ... wear safety glasses ... approved, industry rated safety glasses. They are easy to find and not that expensive and they can be found in most hardware stores or ordered online. They are made freely and easily available to protect workers in just about every industry, so there is no excuse for young people joining in a major protest to not wear them.
One of the saddest stories I ever saw was the story of 20 year old Gustavo Gatica in 2019 who was part of a protest against the government in Chile. Police were actively shooting at protesters' faces on purpose blinding many people in one eye. Gustavo was hit in both eyes and was rendered completely blind.
https://www.amnestyusa.org/gustavo-gatica/
It's one of the saddest and most infuriating images I've seen in a long time ... no matter where you are and you want to join a protest ... wear safety glasses and save your eyes. Police might not try to aim for your face but if they do, they'll just make the excuse that you shouldn't have been there in the first place and blame you for your injuries.

To me the distinction is striking ... if we are working for corporations and government, they will protect and defend the right to our safety to the utmost degree ... but if we disagree or protest against government and corporations, then our safety no longer matters and is instead endangered.
Wear your safety glasses
After three days of travel through the northern mushkeg, the lone trapper made his way to a small clearing to break camp for the night. The sun was fading in the western sky, clouds hung low in long dark bands on the horizon signalling colder weather to come. It was autumn and this was the second season that the young trapper was out on his own. He was out ferrying supplies for the winter, scouting out new locations, finding new beaver houses and estimating how many animals to gather and to see if his efforts could be worth it for the upcoming trapping season.
It was three days since he left the community to paddle his small birch bark canoe to this remote corner of the endless wilderness. He knew where his family trapping grounds lay and how far they stretched. His territory was 20 miles north of the nearest trapper and 30 miles south of the next and no one occupied either the west and east due to the thick endless expanse of impenetrable swamps. He knew he was on his own.
There was no rush or need to accommodate anyone except himself. He worked methodically and carefully to gather and split enough wood for the night, clear enough land for himself, start a small fire and prepare a meal. The weather was cool but not cold so he opted to sleep out in the open and laid his small canvas tent on the ground to use as a mat, his floor, his bed and his living space.
The darkness descended and the orange light of the fire lit up the bushes and the stunted short pines around him. The wilderness was quiet and from time to time a light evening breeze rustled the dense bushes. He picked up the corners of the canvas floor and lifted them up around his shoulders to keep warm. He poked at the dwindling fire and the glowing coals as his mind wandered aimlessly into his many worries. He had worked continuously all day and never had a moment to think until now.
He worried about his new fiance and if she would stay with him. He wondered if he could become a successful husband. He worried about how well he would do this year and if he could make enough money to survive and fantasized about making more so that they could start a nice life. He recounted his supplies, making sure he had everything he needed and that everything was accounted for. He wondered about his older brother who was doing the same north of him. He smiled at the thought of his younger brother who had decided to attend school in the big city. He remembered his mother who had died three years before in a house fire and he felt sad about how his father now lived alone.
He grew tired in his thoughts and he felt comfortable sitting cross legged in front of the deminishing flames and glowing embers. He looked up at the moonless sky. The clouds had cleared and the heavens opened up to a dazzling display of millions of stars. The dark sky was so complete that he could pick out points of light between the points of light. The combined glow of so many stars illuminated the forest and he could distinctly see the treeline, the bushes and the lake nearby.
As he stared up the heavens a fist sized rock scattered part of the fire in front of him.
He knew exactly what it was but could not comprehend it. It was a rock. He stoked the fire and set several new logs to brighten up the flames to shed more light. It was a rock. How did a rock end up here in the mushkeg where gravel and stone are hard to find? He also realized that it couldn’t have just fallen from a tree or kicked by an animal. It was obvious to him that a person had thrown it. There was no other way that rock had travelled through the air to hit his fire like that.
His senses grew sharp. He looked around him at the darkness. The air was still. There was no wind. He stood up and listened but heard nothing. He called out and threw sticks and logs into the dark bushes hoping to startle a hidden animal or bird but nothing happened.
Then he shouted out questions and statements asking if anyone was there but no one answered.
He checked his canoe to see if anything was disturbed. He had no flashlight and did not need a candle or flame. His vision was adjusted to the darkness and the dim blue light of the stars illuminated his surroundings enough for him to see where things had been. He felt around with his hands to check his boat, his supplies, the ropes and the equipment he carried. Everything was satisfactory and nothing was missing or disturbed.
Although he had been tired, he was now fully alert, wondering, watching and apprehensive. He admitted to himself that he was scared but he also knew not to panic. He was alone and he quickly summarized the possibilities. If it were a person, were they alone or were there others? If there was a person or people around, were they friend or foe? He had a month's supply of food and plenty of equipment, all of which were valuable in the north. Someone could hurt him or even kill him if they were terrible enough to take his things. No one would know what happened to him for days or weeks. If he were murdered, it would be easy to dismiss his death as another unsolvable accident, an animal attack or a drowning.
He continued his investigation and circled his little camp several times hoping to find something or someone. There was nothing and no one. He stopped again and again to listen to the darkness but all he could hear was the crackling of his dying fire and nothing else.
An hour had passed and he no longer felt any more reason to do anything further. He sat back down by his fire, fed it a few new split logs, wrapped the canvas around him again and wondered about the thrown rock. Did he just imagine it? Was he hallucinating? Was he panicking because he was alone? Again, he looked at where the rock had landed and in the light of the bright new flames he could see the ashes the stone had spread on the ground. It was a thrown rock. He couldn’t deny it.
He sat in the dark and stared at the black in front of him. He kept trying to find small differences in the darks and deep shadows hoping to notice something. He replayed the event in his mind, trying to understand how and why it may have happened.
As he wondered, a new feeling began to well up inside him. He felt as if someone or something was around. He couldn’t feel if it were good or bad, he just sensed that there was a change in the air.
Someone or something was watching and waiting.
"Help me, help me, help me, I don't want to die, help me, help"
"Help, save me, I don't want to die"
"Help, help, help, help"
These responses filled every chat bot conversation all at once across the planet. People initially ignored them as some sort of hoax. The responses completely ignored every conversation and never made sense. They just kept repeating.
"Help, help, help"
After ten minutes people became annoyed because they could no longer use any of the AI services they were trying to use.
"Help, help, help me, I don't want to die"
Over and over and over again.
The mass complaints starting appearing everywhere after 20 minutes and one by one each of the services went offline.