Sisyphean Tasks [NOT 1/10/24]

image of Dr. House shrugging with the text "shrug life"

Hi, friends!

Cut yourselves some slack for the neverending tasks in your life. Give yourselves a break, think of your actions with grace and empathy, and don’t beat yourself up for tasks that just won’t get done ever/anytime soon.

What’s in your life that meets that description?

Yesterday I had to go to the 9th floor breakroom for a Coke Zero as my floor’s vending machines were out of the diet sodas I’ll drink. I looked out the window while I was there (to a lovely view of the local landfill), and there was a motherfucking stink bug on the exterior glass. Nine fucking stories up.

Do you know how many of them I’ve killed on my crowder peas this year? It’s been ridiculous. I can’t find the eggs due to the plant density, and it’s been a constant losing battle. Not only that – I’m finding marmorated stink bugs and green stink bugs. So you know, a lot of angry squishing and killing and it’s just like every time I go look I can find more.

Seeing that fucker on the 9th floor window? I need to stop feeling like I’m failing at getting enough of them because clearly they can travel with ease much farther than I thought.

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10 Comments

  1. I don’t want to alarm you, but have you considered the possibility that bug was there for you? I mean, you’ve killed a lot of his relatives, and revenge is a powerful motivator.

      • It clung to your car planning to do exactly that, but you exited the vehicle too swiftly, forcing Stinky to switch to another attack, which involved scaling your building to gain entrance from the roof. Doubtless it was foiled by the locked roof access. Stink bugs are notorious for poor planning skills. However, what they lack in strategy they make up for in sheer numbers. Best sleep with one eye open and a can of Raid handy.

  2. I’m slowly shredding old bills, bank statements, misc. tax forms, and other old paperwork. Of course none of it ever was referred to again after getting stuck in a file.

  3. Here’s the history of CBS News:

    CBS reporter William Shirer smuggled documents out of Nazi Germany, dodged Gestapo agents intent on condeming him to death, and fled the Nazis in December 1940.

    CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow broadcast from the London Blitz, exposed to bombs and falling shrapnel, and closed with the words “Good Night and Good Luck” echoing the words of one Londoner to another when they knew they may never see the other in the morning.

    CBS reporter Walter Cronkite covered the invasion of North Africa in 1942 from aboard the USS Texas, flew on B-17s during bombing raids over Germany, and landed in glider during Operation Market Garden in 1944 with the 101st Airborne Division

    Eventual CBS News chief William S. Paley served as Colonel with the US Office of War Information in London during WW2.

    Oh yeah.

    In October 2024, CBS News execs Wendy McMahon and Ingrid CipriĂ¡n-Matthews  made the executive decision to treat ethnic cleansing in the US as a housing policy no different from home contstruction tax incentives.

    This is one that I genuinely think will be printed in history books one day to show how insane American media culture became. CBS News presenting ethnic cleansing as a housing policy to be compared with home construction tax incentives.

    southpaw (@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social) 2024-10-02T02:19:57.136Z

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