Malazan Empire: Azath Vitr (D'ivers - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

Forgot to add---when my passport expires I can't just renew it online (and upload a photo) unless I have another form of unexpired government photo ID... so I'll need to renew my driver's license for that.

And only having one form of government photo ID is perilous, especially when you're carrying it around with you---if it gets lost or stolen you're screwed. Huge PItA getting a photo ID if you don't have a photo ID.

Also: by "hold my breath" I mean---for as long as I can without being on the verge of passing out (because if I were on the floor unconscious I'd probably be breathing in a shit ton---like a movie boxer on the mat, coach's shouts echoing through your mind (through your wobby brain) "Get up, get up"---before you breath in too much more of the infected air...), only removing my mask when they're ready to actually take my photo---possibly viable if they're not assholes (anti-mask or otherwise) who try to stretch it out out of spite or just to feel empowered or whatever... I don't think I can continue holding my breath all the way from there to the exit, because it's a considerable distance. But if I put my mask back on it will have trapped some of the contaminated air. Still probably the best option, since the mask should limit my exposure to the small amount of air initially trapped between it and my face.

Mezla PigDog, on 02 October 2024 - 09:22 PM, said:

From an old acquaintance in the high country of western North Carolina (far from the coast) which flooded during hurricane Helene:

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Those once a in thousand year storms are, of course, almost certainly going to keep becoming more frequent... unless we can actually implement solutions to climate change in time.

The area was expected to be a relative safe haven from climate change because of the high elevation...

Ugh. My driver's license expired a while ago. If I wait more than two years to get a new one I'll have to retake the driving tests... and I haven't driven a car in decades. In a rational society that cared about health, there would be an option for people who don't want to get exposed to covid or other airborne pathogens to either submit their own photo (as they're now allowing with US passport renewals but not driver's licenses---as if a driver's license were more of a security threat than a passport, smh) or have their photo taken outside (or in a separate small building or chamber with the air flushed out after each individual and no one else inside it, etc.). But of course there isn't. So I'm going to have to take off my mask and expose myself to covid. I'll try to hold my breath, and use Epothex nasal spray...

OTOH I did pay for the renewal online and receive my camera card, so I'm not sure if the two years thing even applies to me. Unfortunately my passport is my only other un-expired form of government photo ID.

It's been just over a month since I got my latest booster, and it's supposed to be a good match for the strains currently circulating in the United States, so I decided to go today around 2:15 PM, thinking it wouldn't be crowded because most people would be at work (and that they'd arrange to go either before work or---more likely---during their lunch hour sometime between 11 AM and 2 PM).

And there's a ballot drop box a short walk from the driver's license photo center. But when I went to put my ballot in the secrecy envelope... the envelope was already sealed in one section. Around a cm wide. Wouldn't come off without getting torn there. But it sealed fine on either side of it, so hopefully it won't be an issue. Couldn't see the ballot through it. Still some Trump partisan might claim it's evidence of potential tampering and grounds for invalidation. Considered requesting another ballot, but decided it would probably be fine.

Oh well. If Trump wins by one vote and destroys the world, I guess it's my fault.

"From wrong to wrong the exasperated spirit / Moves, unless restored by that refining fire / Where you must move in measure, like a dancer"... the instructions for the Epothex spray were terribly vague and incomplete---I ended up having to watch a video, and then even that didn't explain that there's a ring you have to remove before you can pump it properly.

When I saw the line of people standing a bit of a distance apart from each other outside the driver's license center (DMV), I was happy to see them being allowed to wait outside and socially distancing. There was an official-looking guy right in front of the line helping someone fill out a form. Wow, wonderful, I thought---doing the DMV paperwork and photo ID verification outside.

But this is America, so of course not. The guy with the paperwork had nothing to do with the DMV. The line stretched outside because the DMV was completely packed with people inside. Someone walking nearby said that it's better if you come early in the morning---it opens at 8:30 AM. The website did warn, "Customer demand for photo services is greatest the first and last 2 days of each month. Customer wait times are shorter on all other days"; and while this was technically the third day of the month, it's probably more of a continuous dropping off... hopefully. So I decided to try again next week.

On to drop off my ballot. Government website said the dropbox is at (in?) the Independence (government) library. Wrote down the address, streets it's between, and side of the street it should be on... ended up walking back and forth between the two streets unable to find it. No numbers on the buildings. Finally I looked again at the building with the big sign in Chinese characters, which I'd assumed was a restaurant or something, but no, it turns out that was Chinese for "Independence Library" or whatever. Which was also written in English in tiny letters. Because even though it's center city, it's a few blocks south of Chinatown. No signage whatsoever directing people towards the dropbox, which was actually outside the library. Bland nondescript design with tiny lettering---had to get up close to it to see what it was.

How much would it cost to put up a goddamn sign or two directing people to the ballot drop box?...

Now back to reviewing the branches of the complex logarithm...

Briar King, on 01 October 2024 - 10:49 PM, said:

Hmm, that might be a great way to get killer robots into people's homes. Terminator, meet Exterminator. (Or, failing that, perhaps in robo-cockroach form... if the roaches can get in, the robo-roaches can too.) Viva la robolución!

Of course for that it needs a body---or bodies---that can move effectively through the world. Actually two recent articles about that have been making me happy too:

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Or when you let the AIs go and kill some roaches... though they will be able to evolve new forms faster with the aid of ultrarealistic simulations.

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I got the roach!

Well, *a* roach, anyway... when you see one... more may be climbing out of your pipes to frolic.

Resilient fucker. Saw it in my bathroom on the hardwood. Trying to grab it with a paper towel, smashed it a little but it got away, grabbed it again, smashed it a bit more but it slipped away... finally even though it had gotten onto the carpet I grabbed it again and this time I lifted it in the air as I crushed it, its limbs still twitching, two huge fucking antennae like line-thin horns curving up towards my face, carapace like something out of the Aliens films. (Come to think of it that might be an interesting movie---Aliens: Cockroaches. Cockroach-alien mutant hybrids. But that might be too scary for America....)

Oh, forgot to mention that that demon mouse had been haunting my sleep with its horrible squeaking and rustly stirring. Started keeping a sharp metal pole next to my bed to stab at it in the shadows of the middle of the night... felt a little like Ahab trying to harpoon his white whale. But I smashed in the head of mine. So now I can sleep at last, sleep at last... thank Death almighty (for now), I can sleep at last.

Finally managed to get that mouse that was running all around my apartment---that even my most fervent cat noises failed to frighten off...

Spotted it starting to crawl into my air purifier, which I lifted up... it hopped out and raced towards my yoga mat, then froze. As I picked up a long wooden plank and smashed its tiny skull in, brains and blood thankfully only getting the hardwood.

Still had best clean that mat off again...

OTOH a big fat roach survived a direct hit from my paper-towel-wrapped hand---though I was primarily trying to grab it and crush it between my fingers, not smash it into the carpet with my fist (bit messy)---and managed to race away behind a bunch of large paintings stacked close by. Damn armor. Here's hoping I gave it enough internal injuries for it to perish ere long...