Why I don’t rant about trump anymore

I expect (and hope) that most, if not all of the people who read this blog, already have the opinion of trump that I have. He’s a stupid, ignorant, narcissist, and clinically insane. Those who still support him are akin to flat Earthers. Flat Earthers have all seen the moon go through its phases; crescent, first quarter, gibbous, and full. These people have also seen numerous toy balls in many different conditions of oblique light. If they asked me to PROVE that I have fingers (I only have nine, but that’s another story) I would hold them up and wiggle them before their eyes. They would probably say that my fingers are fake. I wouldn’t try that more than once. I have already written too many times about trump, it’s not my job to discover fire or invent the wheel.

Microwave that jar safely

Heloise. Do your readers struggle with the “organic” peanut butter and almond butter? You know the kinds that suggest refrigeration and aren’t pasteurized so they separate and require stirring. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could pop the jars into the microwave for a quick warming to facilitate that process? But that aluminum foil from the “safety” sealer that never comes off and sticks to the rim of the jar will spark and burn when hit by those microwaves, scarry and perhaps dangerous too. I’ve got a simple way to completely remove that foil. Remove the screw-on lid, but before you tug on that seal, you just invert the whole thing onto a warm dry frying pan or griddle. Preheat the pan for 30 seconds or so on your stove, turn off the heat and hold the inverted jar on the hot surface for fifteen seconds or so. Lift it out and the seal will come off cleanly with no remaining metal scraps. Now, any time you want to microwave the whole jar you can do so without the sparks. You’re welcome.

Pain is Interesting.

I had a little problem with looking up at the stars recently. I found that if I do so, my left arm and hand break out in pain; intense pins and needles. Interesting that needles part. I also have a theory, well, more of a philosophy, of pain. Pain is something that hurts (you’re still with me here?) and it hurts because of an injury to the place where it hurts. It indicates damage that you need to attend to. Alternatively, an intense and very interesting sensation is something that feels very similar to pain but it doesn’t indicate on-going injury or even necessarily damage. So if there is no damage, you shouldn’t have to attend to it; it doesn’t matter. And if you are being subjected to something that is making you better, or it’s not anywhere near the location of the sensation, it can’t be pain, it’s good for you and just a very interesting sensation. My theory is shit. A few years back I came home from serious rotator cuff surgery, and due to an error in out-patient information, woke up the morning after with the nerve block completely gone and zero pain medication in my body. “Boy!” I said, “That was a long minute! Oh! It looks like I’ve got some more very long minutes queued up!” This went on for about 45 minutes until the meds kicked in. I knew that I was getting better, but I guess that I couldn’t just call my sensation “interesting” anymore. I recently had the pleasure of experiencing dry needling (intramuscular stimulation, IMS, aka: trigger point invasive therapy). Acupuncture like needles are used to “stimulate” "dense contraction knots" that are proven trigger points for deferred pain (pain you feel elsewhere). Dry needling is the use of solid acupuncture needles, the difference is, dry needling is based on scientifically tested results of measurable effects on physiology as opposed to 3,000 year old Chinese lore. Whether dry needling should be considered acupuncture or not depends on the definition of acupuncture, and it is argued that trigger points do not correspond to acupuncture points or meridians. There is no controversy about the fact that dry needling can “light you up”. This all relates to my theory of what pain is. I was more than certain that there was nothing wrong with my left hand. I was equally certain that sticking a really tiny needle into my upper arm could not possibly injure my hand. All this was abundantly clear as I bit deeply into the index finger of my other hand inorder to not scream and therefore frighten my good therapist’s other patients as he jiggled that needle around in my arm and I imagined my left hand being immersed in a pot of boiling water. Shit, that really hurt. My theory is shit. I am now wondering if the therapy is akin to the idea that if the cure is more painful than the initial pain, that’s when our minds can tell us it doesn’t hurt anymore, it’s just interesting. “Thanks Doc, I’m all better, we don’t have to do that therapy ever again.”

Ecce Homo.

I have often said that the execrable concept: “The end justifies the means.” comes from the belief in God, and that certainly the conceit that we humans “have dominion over nature” does as well. These are the worst ideas man has ever come up with (and most certainly, the most virulently persistent fallacies in existence, due their utter irrefutability as they are based only on faith without possibility rational proof). There is a disturbing trend in Neo-Environmental Secular Humanism that posits that; whereas man is part of Nature, and as the only rational animal capable of thinking about what is, what was, and what will be… WE TOO can do no wrong. Move over fake God; Ecce Homo.