I’m reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. It’s my first Sanderson and I’m a little over 300 pages in. It’s been on my TBR for a few months and finally decided to take it on.

This is awesome. Did you build it? Where are you going to put it? Do you have more pictures of the complete library box?

I got a French press and used it for awhile. I’m extremely lazy though and got tired of having to clean the coffee grounds out of the screen. That’s something I didn’t consider before buying it. I switched to a chemex that I like much better. Yeah, there are disposable filters but it works better for me. If I were starting over, I’d probably just get some kind of pour over thing that fits over my mug. That would take up less space than the chemex.

Aye

My example with the mask was to highlight the inconsistency that folks on the right exhibit. They claimed that wearing masks was a violation of their freedoms, but also seem to be in favor of policies that limit people’s freedoms. They claimed that the masks made it so they couldn’t breathe. But then there were plenty of insurrectionists on Jan. 6 wearing masks. They believe some unsubstantiated misinformation on Facebook about how the vaccines will implant trackers into them, but disbelieve the scientists who tell them they’re safe. They pick and choose their arguments and what they’ll believe without critical thought.

Of course I don’t think people who refuse to wear masks are Nazis. That’s silly. I just think they’re selfish. And of course I don’t think all Republicans are Nazis. And like I said before, I wouldn’t want to be in place where there couldn’t be honest debate about different politics. But I’m not convinced they have any actual legitimate principles anymore. Nazi ideology, book bans, and violent rhetoric against lgbtq are not topics I’m willing to have an honest discussion about because there’s nothing to discuss. Those things don’t belong in a society. Now if they want to discuss the merits of legitimate conservative policies, those kinds of debates should absolutely be allowed. But I haven’t seen much lately showing that they even has those principles anymore sadly.

I don’t use Nazi lightly. I only use it because self proclaimed Nazis support the extremist right ideologies. They’re full of hate, and they’re anti-education, and want to make it so that the queer community goes back in the closet. This isn’t about some knee jerk reaction to people I disagree with. If the people on the right actually practiced the principles they so loudly preach like liberty and freedom for all, then yes, I’d be open to having legitimate discussions and debate with them. But they don’t. They foamed at the mouth when asked to do the bare minimum and wear a mask to help protect their more vulnerable countrymen during a pandemic. But apparently that was too much. In their minds, that was fascism. However, they can wave their Nazi flags at protests while wearing masks. But but but I thought they couldn’t breathe with them on. 😭 They only pretend to stand for freedom and family values and caring about children. They target gays, minorities, trans people, and obstruct any efforts to provide services that would actually help children and families. One example is all the Republican state legislatures wanting to end free and reduced school lunches. I’m sick and tired of decent people kowtowing to these extremists and I’m done.

Defederate them. Tolerance has limits and we have the right and, in my opinion, obligation to not tolerate the intolerant. In the words of the crustpunk bartender, “you have to nip it in the bud immediately.”

Here’s the story taken from a series of tweets.

I was at a shitty crustpunk bar once getting an after-work beer. One of those shitholes where the bartenders clearly hate you. So the bartender and I were ignoring one another when someone sits next to me and he immediately says, “no. get out.”

And the dude next to me says, “hey i’m not doing anything, i’m a paying customer.” and the bartender reaches under the counter for a bat or something and says, “out. now.” and the dude leaves, kind of yelling. And he was dressed in a punk uniform, I noticed

Anyway, I asked what that was about and the bartender was like, “you didn’t see his vest but it was all nazi shit. Iron crosses and stuff. You get to recognize them.”

And i was like, ohok and he continues.

"you have to nip it in the bud immediately. These guys come in and it’s always a nice, polite one. And you serve them because you don’t want to cause a scene. And then they become a regular and after awhile they bring a friend. And that dude is cool too.

And then THEY bring friends and the friends bring friends and they stop being cool and then you realize, oh shit, this is a Nazi bar now. And it’s too late because they’re entrenched and if you try to kick them out, they cause a PROBLEM. So you have to shut them down.

And i was like, ‘oh damn.’ and he said “yeah, you have to ignore their reasonable arguments because their end goal is to be terrible, awful people.”

And then he went back to ignoring me. But I haven’t forgotten that at all.

I’ve bought at least two bags from ebags.com that I’ve been very happy with. The first bag was for a large 17 inch laptop I used in college. It was one of the only places I could find that carried laptop backpacks that could fit a thick 17 inch laptop. That bag is still getting use when I travel with very little signs of wear. I was so happy with it that when I needed a new carryon bag, I went back to ebags and got their Mother Lode Travel Backpack. It looks like they have a lifetime warranty for their ebags brand products.

I really like the size and aesthetic of the Field Notes notebooks. Small and thin enough to fit in a pocket. Maybe not as durable as some might be looking for. I kind of like the weathered look they get after some use though.

For something larger and more durable, I’ve liked these Miliko brand notebooks. The paper is nice to write on and doesn’t bleed through.