Petty *shrug* [NOT 20/6/23]

20/6/23 brightersideoflife 32

Hi, friends! What’s something lately where you’re like eh I’m petty and I don’t care.

Reading about that missing “tourist” submarine looking at the Titanic wreckage, and I’m just feeling like oh no, shucks, darn. Objectively I am concerned about the pilot and any staff, but the petty as fuck part of me? Welp can’t say I’m really concerned about the loss of people who paid more than $250k “citizen scientists” to go do this trip. If it were an unpiloted vehicle and it was only richie rich people onboard? I’d ask why we were spending money on US Coast Guard and Canadian Armed Forces searching for it. Aw shucks, turns out the Titanic is still sucking for some rich people.

Anyways, I’m writing this Monday night. I hope by Tuesday night they find the submarine and it’s actually near the surface and the folks are okay. If a pod of orcas decides to take out the millionaires during the rescue, well that would not by on my bingo card for 2023.

avataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravataravatar

32 Comments

  1. I get it. I feel the same way about all the people who die climbing Everest. I don’t wish them harm and I take no pleasure in their death but they knew what they were signing up for. 🤷🏻‍♀️

  2. At this point, I don’t think anyone survived.

    As I read somewhere else, the two choices are terrible.

    1. Hull failure which means instantaneous death.

    2. Electrical system failure which means slow agonizing death from suffocation.

    Given the choices and my own fears… I’d prefer 1 over 2.

    But like WOPR from the movie War Games, I’d rather not play the game at all!!!!

    Especially when you see the submarine is just a fucking tube for five people and no actual seating or washroom. I would not like being stuck in that position for 9 hours if everything went well.

    I’ve seen actual deep diving research submarines (in museums) and they have more ammenities than that Spam In A Can homemade submarine… seriously, a seat would be nice. Better than splay legged in a fucking tube.

    There is no actual amount of money you could give me to ride on that sub.

    • War Games! I haven’t thought of that in decades!

      Apparently two of the five “citizen scientists” were one of the richest Pakistani billionaires and his son. No loss. Better Half works for one. Not one of the ones who went down with the sub.

      We took out Osama bin Laden, who had been hanging out in a wealthy Pakistan resort town compound, and we dumped his body in an undisclosed position in the Indian Ocean, so, fine, whatever. Same thing.

      THAT’S how petty I am.

        • The other thing is, I’m obsessed with the Titanic, I’ve seen all the movies, there’re like 20 of them (AND WHERE IS LYMOND?) and read so many books and details of the menus and the decor and the online discussions about how faithful each…

          Even I was horrified to learn that this hobby sub actually attempted this. I don’t need to see it broken into two pieces (although I have, hundreds of times, but online and on dry land) on the Atlantic seabed. And it degrades, more and more, with every passing month, so, maybe, we could leave it in peace?

          If I were aboard with Better Half I would have gone down with the ship. So would he. But if it were 1912 I would have been in steerage and I’m not sure what BH would have been doing, because I don’t think there were any Black passengers. But whatever. Say we were there. BH would have tried to stop the men from boarding the lifeboats and I would have escorted the women and children onto the boats with a cheery, “Have a nice trip!”

          I actually only came kind of close to this scenario when, immediately post-9/11, my company got a false bomb threat or warning or something. The leadership of my division at the time was mostly women, who have nerves of steel; boys, do not underestimate women, but the division head asked me, a tall and not young white man, to go around on my large floor and calmly and quietly ask that everyone take to the stairwells and meet in the skyscraper plaza outside.

          Nothing happened, of course, it was a deranged idiot who worked for the company, (in a blue-collar role, and in the building across the street) but I got a commendation for arranging an orderly evacuation.

          • Yes, there WAS a Black man on the Titanic, Cousin Matty–he was born in Haiti and moved to France in his youth, to study Engineering.

            He married a white French woman, and they had two daughters, and the wife was pregnant on the journey.

            His name was Joseph Philippe Lemercier Laroche, and hers was Juliette Lafargue.

            Their daughters were named Simonne and Louise. The baby who was born *after* the sinking was named Joseph, after his father.

            Their story is here;

            https://www.courttheatre.org/about/blog/the-story-of-joseph-laroche-the-only-black-man-on-rms-titanic/

             

                • Amazing. One of the things that Titanic obsessives, such as myself, forget, or overlook, is that the ship was called RMS Titanic. RMS stands for Royal Mail Ship. It was packed with all kinds of trans-Atlantic cargo. When it started sinking the crew valiantly started moving gigantic mailbags up from the hull or the storage compartments, but to no avail. After the sinking people sued the White Star Line because onboard were a version of money orders, lots of them, that went down with the ship. And people wanted their money. I suppose I would too, I guess. There were vaults under one of the World Trade Center Towers, and when they were attacked and collapsed, and in the ensuing fire, which burned for like two months, or more, I remember going to a Christmas party not too far away and smelling it and seeing the site glowing, the vaults were destroyed. Those lawsuits took years to resolve.

    • I haven’t been following it today, but I wonder if it could have been an Apollo 13 deal where the CO2 scrubbers failed, only this time they didn’t have a way to rig something up with duct tape and tube socks.

    • @manchucandidate you forgot option 3

      the Qanoption

      where they are in fact just members of the lizard people ruling elite what have gone home under cover of an accident

      (note…far as i’m aware they aren’t saying that yet…..fucking sounds about right tho eh?)

  3. I have a neighbor who insists in parking in “his” spot on the street, which of course is open to the public. He’ll leave nasty notes on the windshields of cars who park there. There is never a shortage of street parking, by the way, so he can always park maybe 10 feet away.

    The particularly weird thing is he doesn’t park in front of his house by his front door.  He parks around the corner closest to his back door.

    Except his wife has some kind of mobility issue, and getting down their back steps and all the way out through their back yard is much, much harder for her than going out the front steps. As in, maybe five steps and 15 feet if he parked out front, vs. 20 steps down the back stairs and 100 feet through the back yard. It’s obviously a bigger fall hazard for her to go out the back way.

    None of it adds up. It’s not a temporary thing while the front steps get fixed — they’ve been doing this forever. All I can think is decades ago they started parking there, and now refuse to change their habits.

     

    • One of my sibling’s in-laws had a driveway that was big enough for two cars, not side-by-side but front to back, and a garage that would no doubt have fit two more, but the father-in-law turned it into an unused “machine shop”/junk-and-hoarder space. The garage became unusable, because of the hoarding, and the driveway was reserved for “company” (to their credit, they used to entertain a lot.) But time passed and the neighborhood gentrified around them and the new neighbors started complaining about all the sidewalk parking and at some point the town actually did put in an ordinance forbidding this kind of overnight parking.

      However, it was one of those towns where they had been there since pre-World War II, so they knew everyone, and their neighbors’ children were taking over, all the municipal positions. So some new-ish resident would show up at a town meeting and raise a complaint and the response would be a very carefully worded, “Go back to where you’re from. Moving on, our assistant high school principal…” It was incredible to watch.

      So that was kind of petty, I think.

      • I can understand those stories about huge snowstorms in Boston where people take an hour to shovel out a spot and reserve it with folding chairs, and woe to the person who moves the chairs and parks in the spot.

        But the complaints you hear about everyday parking like you’re describing just leave me scratching my head.

    • Assholes with the car-parking are the ones who make me think it’d be really handy sometimes, to own a valve-stem puller!😉😈😈

      No damage to the car…

      ZERO damage to the tires….

      But that cat NEEDS to get towed!

      ‘Cuz there’s no putting *air* back in the tires, yourself, and no driving the car with *four* flats!😁😈

      • There’s no issue that way. On the odd chance there’s a ton of snow and the plows don’t come, it would actually be better to park out front, especially for his wife. But he still won’t do it. He’s also the jerk who never shovels his walk or hires a kid to do it.

  4. I just saw the passenger list on the sub.  I guess the CEO of company is a sign they believed in the safety of it?  I have a friend that was head of HURL, Hawaii Undersea Research Lab, but haven’t asked for his thoughts yet.  Most of what they did was remote subs filming the volcanos but he would definitely have thoughts.  I may text him later & will post something.

  5. Dangerous drivers, like the asshat who did this;

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/5-killed-minnesota-car-crash-arrest_n_64922c5ae4b06123d830aa72

    It happened less than 10 blocks from where I live & work… I’m kiiiinda wondering if some of them weren’t the sweet, pretty young women who were in the grocery store getting snacks earlier that evening–around 9-ish. I’m *hoping* it wasn’t them, but they *might’ve* been the group of young ladies who came through earlier that evening (I am SO face-blind, that it takes me literally *months* to recognize my regulars!)…

    My heart broke for their families, and especially for their friend–whose wedding they were supposed to attend–and for whom they’d all gone to get hennaed.

    It’s just tragic, really. Such a GREAT bunch of Sisters,** who were doing SO MUCH GOOD, and whose lives got cut guttingly & tragically short.

     

    And the ASSHAT who did it…

    Just uggggggh.

    The twerp *literally* just got his drivers license back, after putting a different woman into a coma, in 2018.

    He pled guilty in 2020, was supposed to be in prison for EIGHT YEARS, yet *somehow* was driving recklessly in Minneapolis, on Friday night, with a license he got back again on June fucking 7th!!!

    How the FUCK did that little turd HAVE HIS LICENSE BACK?!???

    Ffs, and *how* early are they RELEASING people in California?!?

    Because if he’d been sentenced to those eight years HERE?

    He’d still have a few months left to serve…

    Here, if you get out “early” for good behavior, you serve 2/3 of your sentence *inside,* and the other 1/3 on parole…

    He would’ve had to serve just over 5.25 years *inside*–which would’ve meant he’d most likely get out right around January of 2024…

    INSTEAD, that little scumbag was *out,* fully licensed, and able to kill *FIVE* people!!!

    It’s *very different* in some ways, but in others, it calls to mind what happened, back before MN changed our Drunk-Driving laws, after Malik Sealy was killed driving home from KG’s 24th birthday party downtown.

    Malik was killed by a drunk driver, going the wrong way in the then-construction zone on Highway 100 south, because *that* asshat was drunk & driving NORTH…

    The SAME asshat then got busted *TWO MORE TIMES* for driving drunk–ond here, once in Iowa…

    And *that asshat* ended up getting 8 years, back in 2008, for violating his probation & Felony DWI.

    There’s *no* reason to be driving 80-90mph on a *city* street… honestly, there’s not even a reason to be driving those sorts of speeds on a city highway or interstate freeway. There’s just NOT… 70-75 is *plenty* and a minimum of 10 mph above the posted speeds…

    Getting clocked at 90-95, *WHILE* you’re on probation–Before you KILL SOMEONE–should *immediately* result in a return to prison, for your FULL sentence.

    Personally, I hope they charge the little twerp with Felonies, and I’d like to see his sentence broken the fuck OUT, into some of the creative stuff we’ve *occasionally* seen–where instead of just *straight* time in prison, he’d be required to spend YEARS of *weekends* locked up… say 15+ years of reporting to the county jail EVERY.SINGLE.WEEKEND, from Friday night until Sunday/Monday…

    Because even though the laws really aren’t that harsh, for what he did–there are ways that the legal system can impose penalties that would be *just enough of a pain in his ass* so that he WOULD pay and at least suffer *a little* for what he just did…

    That sort of sentence does basically nothing, in the grand scheme of things, I know….

    But it WOULD offer him the opportunity to get the sort of job where he CAN pay the families of his victims a much better restitution amount than if he was only locked up. It *also* would FORCE him to face what he did–Every week, for years…

    Tbh, with the MN statute being such a low “mandatory minimum?”

    I’d LOVE to see him get 5 consecutive terms, which would total out to at *minimum* 20+ years–if it was the weekends–maybe at his parole period, after serving the first 2/3rds?

    I’d like to see him have to do 20 YEARS of weekends…

    So he can think about *how many years* those young women’s families had them here… and how many years those young women should have still had with their families.

    Sometimes, I’m a vindictive asshole, who really LIKES a good, creative sentence.😠😡🤬😈

     

     

     

    **not blood relations, but that’s how folks in our diaspora communities are referred to & refer to themselves–“Sister,” “Brother,” and “Cousin” is just *what* you call someone here–people’s humanity is SO important, and *community* is SO incredibly strong. 

    I learned that years back, when I was tutoring in the writing center, at my first 2-year college.

    That type of *community* and looking out for each other, was what made one of my fellow members of our Student Senate and I realize *how much* we both had in common with each other–while on *paper* we couldn’t appear more opposite😉💖

    I grew up Catholic, in Rural MN, white, female, and while poor, I had access to a *GREAT,* free education, my parents owned our trailer home, etc.

    He was born in Somalia, and his family had to flee to Ethiopia when he was little. He grew up in a refugee camp there, during the 70’s-80’s famine years–literally one of the kids *we* were reminded of, when we didn’t want to eat the food put in front of us… He’s Muslim–married fairly young, had *multiple* kids, etc…

    But we *both* realized, we had Grandmas who ruled their families with an iron fist. Who *required* the whole family to come over & eat together after church. Who kept their children close, made SURE the kids & grandkids were on “The Right Path” in life, and who–while *complicated* women, really did CARE in their way, that we turned out ok.

    We were *both* enmeshed safely & deeply in a *community* of people around us, who pulled *together,* who looked OUT for one another, and who made SURE that everyone had *enough* and no one got left behind…

    Honestly? The same deep ties & values that I’ve realized my Hmong co-workers, acquaintances, & friends grew up with, too!🤗💖💝

     

  6. I am now thinking about how petty I am. I really need to convert to Catholicism because of the Sacrament of Confession. I have so much to atone for. I think you can do it over the phone, but we have a Catholic Church not too far away, but I can’t kneel, so maybe I could do this over the phone to Phone-A-Priest, surely this must exist. Although Communion. I don’t know if priests make house calls for that. They must. My kitchen island is sacred, to me, anyway, and there’s always some wine hanging around, but no Communion wafers. During my spells institutionalized they always asked if I wanted a “spiritual healer” or figure or something and I would say, “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s the the 21st century. I wouldn’t mind some more of that oxycodone, if you have any of it…”

    LUCKILY, I did not get addicted to oxy, in any of its many forms, but if you’re ever offered it, take as much as they’ll give you. I’ve also taken fentanyl, which is used in sedatives to keep a patient awake but numbed during procedures where they don’t want to put you under general anesthesia. Also highly recommended!

    [Oh God, I’m recommending fentanyl to a general audience. Well, if it’s good enough for Hunter Biden and his sex workers it’s good enough for me and my health care providers!]

     

    • I had a lovely propofol nap during the surgery to yeet my fallopian tubes. 10/10, would recommend propofol for medical naptimes any day.

      I would just say go to a catholic church and go to communion and just pretend. It’s very formulaic, you go in the confessional, sit down, either start with “hello father” to greet the priest or just jump straight into “forgive me father, for I have sinned. The last time I have been to confession is (whenever). These are my sins.” Some people start more optimistically with “bless me father, for I have sinned…”

      WOW talk about core memories, I haven’t been to confession since high school and I had my 20th reunion last year.

      Anyways, just make up a date for your last confessional. Like 5 years. Whatever. If you get a truly old school priest, when you’re done you’ll be told something like “say 10 Hail Mary-s and 5 Glory Be-s.” If you get a good one who is younger, you’ll have some dialogue like “well, why do you thnk you were so mean to your sister? What could you do to help resolve the situation?” and some advice to go do those good ideas and maybe throw a few Hail Mary-s and Our Father-s in there.  Then you’re supposed to say the Act of Contrition, but you could just chalk that up to a faulty memory due to having been so long since your last confession.

      Confessions are usually done in the hour before mass starts, so people can be all extra fresh spiritually for a 50 minute mass before they leave to go sin again.

      *I know you said you can’t kneel, but confessionals typically have a chair or a bench as well since lots of people can’t kneel.

    • Cousin Matty–although I’m a thoroughly lapsed catholic (quit going to church with ANY regularity after being confirmed *on* my 13th birthday**), I can assure You, after having gone through the hospice stuff with Dad–who was still as much a practicing Catholic as he was when I was younger (he went to church *maaaaybe* 2-5 times a year?😉😆🤣)…

      *Anyway*–i can assure you, that one *no longer* needs to kneel in the little… crap, I forgot what the cubby/closet-thingy is called!….

      ANYWAY–you DON’T hafta kneel, because you can simply let the priest know about your situation, and he’ll come to *you* if need be–OR–he’ll come sit in a Pew *next* to you, while he hears your confessions…

      Same thing with the Eucharist for communion! Father Joe came to Dad’s room a *few* times, visited, and brought communion *to* dad! He even came for a visit and did the Annointing of the Sick, while Dad sat in his recliner, and my Auntie & Uncle and I sat with them!

      Modern Catholicism is *much* less “ashes & sackcloth” than it used to be, and *quite a bit* less “Go to Church for your Sunday Morning Exercise!” than it *used* to be, too!😉😆😁

       

       

      (**it was a Tuesday evening that year–that was supposedly the only evening the Bishop had available to come out & do the confirmation service for those of us who were in the 7th-10th grades, and the one adult gentleman who was never able to go to confirmation classes when he was younger…

      Oh BOY(!), what a “fun” way to spend the first birthday of one’s teenage years!🙄🙃🥴)

      • When I was in the hospital (three weeks) and then physical rehab (two weeks) many of the fellow patients were Catholics, although elderly and Spanish speaking. And it was horrible because they were just rolling out the Covid vaccine, so if you couldn’t get it the best you could do was masking, which we know now really didn’t do anything, but they imposed this on all of us, and the low-level medical staff were “vaccine hesitant.” Crazy, all of it. But I survived.

        I can speak Spanish, so when the priests came around I knew enough that they were saying the Lord’s Prayer or the Hail Mary. I don’t know what the Glory Be is, but I suppose once I enter the Seminary For Dissipated Former Non-Believers I’ll find out!

  9. Wow, my buddy just texted me his thoughts on this.  I will post it on the DOT in morning when more people will read it.  Pretty interesting take from some one that has been that deep but for science, not tourism.

  10. I just remembered that I’m incredibly petty about my gay male neighbors next door, who I refer to as “The Aunties.” A more cheerless couple you’ve never met. I think they’re both bipolar, one of them certainly is, because of the acting out. I don’t even want to write any more about this, so I guess the Emperor Andreus Marcus Maximus pandemic lockdowns had one benefit, in that they were completely freaked out, so that they would have their grocery orders dropped off in the lobby (this was an idiotic building rule that went on for God knows how many months; no doorstep deliveries, the deliveristas and door staff are expendable I suppose) and when I’d see them (I’d be masked, not that it did any good) I’d have Faithful Hound with me and they’d freak out because they thought a black Lab could transmit Covid-19?

    I’m still absolutely absolutely furious about this, and it’s not petty. Most of my friends left Manhattan and they’re never coming back. Our tax base is collapsing. The rents are growing ever more unaffordable but why would you live here nowadays? I could go on and on. As always, I have work to do, so maybe I should turn my attention back to that.

Leave a Reply