Coffee Break [1/1/24]

Ghost of Christmas Future

1/1/24 Hannibal 30

Welcome to 2024, DeadSplinters! Let’s hope it’s better than ’23. Do you have any goals, dreams, plans, or wishes for the coming year?

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30 Comments

    • I don’t know if other places do this, but in New York restaurants are assigned letter grades after the building inspectors do their rounds, and the letter grades have to be posted publicly, like in the window. This is open to manipulation, to put it mildly. There was a great video of a couple of rats skittering around on some kind of counter right beneath a certificate giving the restaurant an A rating. Not that I can find it now, of course. The city doesn’t take kindly to exposure of its incompetence and successability to graft and bribery.

      In the wake of this green initiative, it’s called Local Law 97, they started doing this to private residential buildings. To shame us into falling into line with the New World Order, I suppose. It’s bullshit, of course, but in the wake of the pandemic we’ve been Stockholm Syndromed into just accepting directives like this, no matter how misguided and short-sighted.

      I am happy to report that after a year of crippling special assessments our building has gone from a failing grade to a C+. So I think we’re doing our part. Personally I’d love to put solar panels up on the roof, because every week I get a communiqué from Con Ed warning of power outages and begging me to not use electricity from 9 to 5. Idiots. We work from home. What if we were all still going into offices? Would they be shutting off the power to us and leave us stranded on high floors without HVAC or elevator service? Probably. They don’t give a monkey’s ass.

       

      • The health inspector codes are posted in restaurant windows everywhere in the US that I’ve ever been. And usually listed in the newspapers as well.

        • Hannibal, on a personal note, I am so glad you responded to me. I know, or I sense, that you don’t like me very much after my D/S assholery. My own fault. This old dog is going to have to learn new tricks. But I hope we can become friends. I think we once were.

          I posted this recently, maybe within the last week. But let’s try to remember this as we go through 2024:

          I cannot tell you how much joy this video gives me. Toward the end there’s a group dance scene, all ages, colors, sexes, and they do this dance routine where they jump in a circle, individually, and that dance has a name. I can’t remember it, it’s the brain fog, but I’ve done it myself more than once. It’s really fun.

          I would give anything to be up and dancing around again. Oh well, I have memories and Youtube…

          • I’ve made no secret of the fact that I have been seriously offended by some of your comments. I don’t know if you think they’re funny but I am not amused or entertained by classism, misogyny, xenophobia, or transphobia. Some of your language is straight up white supremacy. I’m not saying that you are a white supremacist. But whether or not you realize it you are helping to uphold white supremacy. And as I’ve mentioned before I am less interested in intention than I am by impact. You will no doubt be offended by that. And others may be offended on your behalf. It’s not easy to look closely at our implicit bias. I have been working on it for years and still have a great deal to learn. One of the main reasons I’ve stopped responding to you is that it honestly started to feel like rage baiting. As to whether or not we can be friends I don’t really know at this point. I certainly don’t want to be enemies. I’m not trying to cause drama or make trouble for you. But as to whether or not we can be friends we’ll have to see.
            You are an educated and intelligent man. I hope you’ll use your voice in service of the global majority instead of against it.

            • I could not agree more, and no one knows me better than I do. I don’t know what comes over me. I mean, there is an element of “let’s cut the crap and talk about what’s really going on,” but that’s my own perception of reality. And it’s true, I am white, but with a gay Black husband I thought I’d be kind of indemnified against charges of white supremacy.

              I’m sure there is a shit-ton of classism on my part, because I grew up lower-middle-class and I ascended due to a LOT of hard (academic) work and attached myself to loads of people who were much further up on the social ladder than I was. And I joined them. And so did Better Half. This is partly a New York thing. “Where are you from? Where do you work? This apartment’s great–how long have you lived here? Is that an original Warhol? What are you making for dinner? I think I had that in Tuscany a couple of years ago.”

              Anyway, I will try to stay with neutral topics, or things that we can all agree on, like, “Could Lauren Boebert be more of a buffoon than she already is?”

    • That’s something to be proud of. I’m not sure what our numbers are but it seems like there are shootings on n the news every damn day. But we all know how the media loves to sound the alarm.

    • Our murder rate is down, too.

      I think part of it is we had an incompetent to the point of potentially corrupt prosecuting attorney who just … didn’t go to trial for people charged with other crimes. So like we were having murders where the suspect was picked up and was already out on bond awaiting a trial for a different violent crime. Like claimed their office was overworked and overloaded, but also refused to let other counties help take some of the load when they offered.

      They resigned over the summer.

  5. Planning to sell a home. Not sure which one (parents or mine) but I don’t intend to rush into it.

    I have no time or desire to be a slumlord even though I could make some money. After all my headaches with former housemates, I would rather sell and be done with it.

    • Also like to add that I want to leave my current employer for a better company/job.

      I have been saying that for the last 5 or so years that the words have become a fucking joke.

      Close calls (good and bad), but I’ve decided I had enough.

  7. 2 Goals for 2024 for my own health. Start seeing a therapist and start going to the dentist. I have a referral for a therapist already, so hopefully I get that ball rolling sooner rather than later.

  9. My goals, dreams, plans, and wishes for 2024.

    1. Two chicks at the same time
    2. That thing where you flip over a water bottle and it lands standing up
    3. Become an influencer

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