Stinking Out Loud

Thoughts of variable quality.

[stinking-out-loud]

くばられた おかしは一日で なくなった

The handed-out snacks

one by one, over the day

simply disappeared.

ハイキング 上着わすれて さむかった

I went on a hike

and forgot to bring a coat

it was super cold

[stinking-out-loud]

By fate’s guidance, one day while on a stroll The most beautiful creature in creation caught my eye My passions ignited, my heart ensnared whole Saying I suppressed my feelings and walked on would be a lie.

No amount of experience nor wisdom stopped me from drawing near Bewitched I was, yet nothing was amiss I reached out to touch, foolishly, without fear My brazen actions rewarded with a hiss.

I recoiled my hand, I had stepped out of place Red rivers flows where my arm was rent I was given no quarter, no mercy, no grace But for that fleeting joy a blood price well spent.

A lesson oft repeated, yet I never learn Forever and always, a cat’s love I do yearn.

[stinking-out-loud]

Major plot hole in wildly popular children's book.

Perhaps only true linguist geeks/entomologists realize this, but in the all-time classic picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the titular caterpillar makes, and I quote, "A small house, called a COCOON..." Then after two weeks it nibbles a hole in the COCOON and pushes its way out to become...

A beautiful BUTTERFLY!

Sounds all fine and dandy? What's the problem? What most people don't know is this is incorrect!

However, if you remember anything from your grade school science classes, butterflies make chrysalises. You then should be able to see where this is going.

Moths are the ones that make cocoons. Is the creature depicted at the end actually a butterfly or just a wildly colored moth?

However, since the caterpillar also ate through a wide variety of processed human foods with the only ill effect being a stomach ache, the scientific accuracy of the book was never at the forefront.

Did you already know this? Hope you learned something new.

[stinking-out-loud]

Ranting

Me just ranting because I want to get this annoying feeling out. If it resonates with someone who happens to read this, feel free to voice your story.

I wonder if this is a long-term symptom of firstborn-daughter syndrome, but I feel like I am the person everyone goes to when they have problems; however, whenever I have an issue I can't get help from anyone. Since I'm the one who is competent and gets stuff done, I have no one to turn too when there is a thing I can't do. Usually those things are also just so out of my control anyways (ex. waiting for approval on an application I entered, etc.).

Like, who helps the help?

It's gotten pretty bad in my opinion. Even my own parents come to me for assistance. Bruh, you're my parents, you're supposed to be the ones that I go to when I need help...

The universe has decided to take it a step further and have some absolute complete strangers come to me looking for help. Someone I don't know called me while I was at work asking questions about getting a job with the company I work for. Why was I the one picked for this task? Out of all the people working at my company, I was the one that got drafted into helping. I see this is as proof the universe is chaotic and RNG hates me real bad.

This same person comes to me asking for "favors" randomly, and I do my best to help, because that's the right thing to do. It's kind of annoying though. I'm trying to enjoy my day off and the person calls seeing if I can help them find a place to live in my area?! That's a you problem buddy, outside my job description, and asking too much of a person you've never met.

Of course, I feel bad turning them away. I need to establish boundaries though. Certainly, I'm not the only person in the world who will only go so far to help a stranger?

So many people have asked me for favors at this point I should be the f'ing Godfather.

"You come to me, on my one day off, askin' for a favor?"

Car rides (pick up and drop off), finding things, translation work, emotional labor, shopping, and so on and so on.

Wouldn't be so bad if all the people I helped showed up for me in other ways. Invite me out to events, show actual interest in my hobbies, occasional gifts, and... I don't know. It's just they only come and talk to me when they need something. Sure they say "thank you", but that really doesn't pay for the gas I spent to drive people around. It doesn't give me more time for my things after I used up mine for them.

I'm exhausted world. Please send help.

P.S. Is there a word for this feeling or phenomenon?

[stinking-out-loud]

If some wildly underqualified white dude is hired at your job, ask him if he's the new DEI hire.

Make him know he's only there because of racism, misogyny, ableism, etc. That DEI was in place to hire qualified minorities over unqualified, whiny white dudes.

[stinking-out-loud]

"Theatre of War"

This phrasing, or military term, for when talking about an area where an armed conflict takes place, bothers me. It's attempting to turn something fatally brutal and turn it pleasant by using a word that has an artistic connotation.

When someone who uses phrases like, "paint the battlefield with blood" doing so in order to soften the reality of how impactful such a view would be using prose? Or is it comparison? Saying such a scene is as if a piece of fine art? Clearly, it depends on who is saying the phrase and the context. I do feel that active participants of battle who use such phrasing are of the latter group. Which is concerning.