smeg @smeg@assortedflotsam.com

I think American democracy is doomed after 2022. Republicans are purging the party of any who believe in elections, and after a midterm bump in 2022 they will have the power to overturn any election their party doesn't win. And they will.

I was wondering why today was so tense and stressful despite nothing terrible happening. Then I remembered I didn't take my meds because I'm trying to stretch them until my doctor's appointment.

Networking decided to block all DNS queries in the firewall on a Friday afternoon.

I'm looking forward to the meltdown videos about workplace vaccine requirements. Please, schadenfreude is all I have left.

I feel this 100%

My job has me on the verge of an anxiety attack. This is normal, right?

Trolley Problem, Ivermectin Edition

I just now learned my grandfather died this morning and I'm somehow supposed to present at a meeting in 30 minutes.

What works at stopping chigger bite itch? I have 215 bites on my feet alone. I've tried: benadryl cream, calamine, hydrocortisone, benzocaine, lidocaine, oatmeal bath, aloe. Numbing with ice works, but I can't sleep that way.

Day 4 and I really need some quality sleep.

Seems plausible. Still irritating, as an owner.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2021/08/misaligned-factory-robot-may-have-sparked-chevy-bolt-battery-fires/

I've now tried hydrocortisone, benzocaine, lidocaine, benadryl cream, calamine lotion, an oatmeal bath, and all of the above combined in different combinations.

The only real solution for my 215+ insect bites is numbing with ice. I expect to get no sleep tonight.

My kid tried to count the number of insect bites I received on our hike on Sunday.

He lost count at 215.

The itching is terrible.

My father finally got his COVID shot! Janssen, 1 shot and done. He needed it for work travel to California. Whatever works!

I've substituted this morning's black decaf coffee with dandelion. If you add enough of the stuff, it reaches an adequate level of blackness for my bitter heart.

I live in the middle of the giant red area on the US covid maps.

It's a complete and utter shitshow. And now people are showing up at pharmacies threatening to "execute" pharmacists for giving people vaccines.

Any other tech/IT worker getting hammered with recruiter emails lately? There's usually a trickle, but I've had 6 come my way in the last 48 hours.

I work with a vendor whose idea of "high availability" is a product that lives and runs entirely inside a single Windows VM... that lives on a high availability cluster. Of course, the application itself is code spaghetti that bugs out and crashes constantly, but they can call it HA!