July 15th is St. Swithin’s Day. It takes place every year on this date, and according to traditional folklore, whatever the weather is like on St. Swithin’s Day-whether rain or sunshine-it will continue for the next 40 days and 40 nights.

Last week, Grok called for the extermination of the Jewish people and called himself MechaHitler.

This week, the Department of Defense announced it was using Grok as an Al partner.

In response, not a single Democratic member of Congress or progressive organization has left X.

I just discovered the best name for a local site – https://wjcp.areafish.com/

The Weasel Junction Catfish Pond

Day 20,616

More pictures from around Salem Virginia

Scenes at and around Salem, Virginia

Happy what would have been 99th birthday to Fred Gwynn

This morning’s wakeup music – supertramp – the logical song

I said, now, watch what you say, they’ll be calling you a radical

A liberal, oh, fanatical, criminal

Oh, won’t you sign up your name?

We’d like to feel you’re acceptable

Respectable, oh, presentable, a vegetable

Pearl says good morning, too.

Also, on or about this day in 1982, I went to see Tron with James Dawsey  ( @shadowchasers.bsky.social )

I would like for wealthy people excited for tax cuts to sign a piece of paper acknowledging that every dollar they get in tax breaks is going to be paid for by someone else…either someone not getting healthcare or SNAP or some future person paying higher taxes to pay the interest on our new debt.

Republicans keep saying the “genuinely disabled” don’t have to worry about losing Medicaid.

All disabilities are genuine.

You also need healthcare to get a diagnosis. To get the paperwork done. To “prove it.”

They’re ensuring people get trapped in red tape loopholes so they can’t get care.

for a lot of people with severe mental illness this will go like:

1) “not disabled enough” to stay on medicaid

2) lose access to the medication that made that the case

3) become psychotic/so severely disabled that jumping through the hoops to go back on medicaid or get on ssi is impossible

4) die

I have been informed that the term “megafauna” is no longer current. The preferred term is “megabiota,” which encompasses large, mobile organisms, including plants, animals, and fungi, that weigh over 99 pounds.

Considering the substantial bacterial presence within the human body, this reclassification appears justifiable.

If you happen to be a mushroom zombie, a living bog monster, or a skin-bound creature, please feel free to refer to yourself as anthropocene megabiota.

Stuff done today –

Patched tire on crv – discount tire does it for free! It was a carpentry nail.

Replaced battery on pilot. The old one lasted us six years, no complaints

Got taco bell for lunch

Cycled element, crv, pilot appropriately

Laundry

Loved up the cat

Showered

Nearly collapsed in the heat

Note, items are not in sequential order, dear journal.

I am said to be a revolutionist in my sympathies, by birth, by breeding and by principle. I am always on the side of the revolutionists, because there never was a revolution unless there were some oppressive and intolerable conditions against which to revolute.

– Mark Twain

The three-act structure is a narrative framework, dividing a story into the setup, confrontation, and resolution.

It is used in writing to provide structure and help the audience follow the narrative.

The last couple of books in my club seem to have ignored that basic design fundamental.

I don’t mean that they are non-linear or episodic, either. They are just sort of “slice of life” narrative books, where there is seemingly no goal, just a window into what the characters are doing.

Not really my vibe.