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Shit I'm...

Reading: “The Only Moral Abortion Is My Abortion”

After writing about abortion a few issues ago, it's been heartbreaking and enraging to read about the wholly predictable and preventable outcomes and consequences that are already happening.

This article is a collection of quotes from clinicians about their experiences with protesters who come in to receive an abortion. The hypocrisy is, of course, wildly frustrating:

Many anti-choice women are convinced that their need for abortion is unique — not like those “other” women — even though they have abortions for the same sorts of reasons. Anti-choice women often expect special treatment from clinic staff. Some demand an abortion immediately, wanting to skip important preliminaries such as taking a history or waiting for blood test results. Frequently, anti-abortion women will refuse counseling. Some women insist on sneaking in the back door and hiding in a room away from other patients. Others refuse to sit in the waiting room with women they call “sluts” and “trash.” Or if they do, they get angry when other patients in the waiting room talk or laugh, because it proves to them that women get abortions casually, for “convenience”.

and also somewhat eye-opening:

“A 21 year old woman and her mother drove three hours to come to their appointment for an abortion. They were surprised to find the clinic a ‘nice’ place with friendly, personable staff. While going over contraceptive options, they shared that they were Pro-Life and disagreed with abortion, but that the patient could not afford to raise a child right now. Also, she wouldn’t need contraception since she wasn’t going to have sex until she got married, because of her religious beliefs.” (Physician, Washington State)

There's not really any logic or introspection happening in these cases it seems. Lots of religion, parental/family pressure, wishful thinking, and mental gymnastics to help them justify things.

Wearing

Found this shirt when we moved. Achewood continues to rule. I think I may re-read it while I'm on sabbatical.

Cooking

I'd never heard of Shirataki noodles before I came across this Youtube video about them. I like noodle dishes and these noodles are only like 5 calories per serving or something wild like that. They're not as good, of course, but with lots of veggies and a hot homemade sauce, they're good enough. Gonna try doing meal prep ahead of time with these for some quick lunches.

Listening to: Imperial Triumphant

Imperial Triumphant is one of the most creative bands out there right now. Super wacky black metal type stuff wearing robes and masks and the whole deal. But, unlike Ghost or Gwar or whatever, these guys back their shit up with some truly unsettling music. They're kinda like Gorguts taken to their next logical extreme. I love it.

Their new album doesn't disappoint. Dissonant, undulating, ugly. And the video for Merkurius Gilded is, again, unsettling. Surreal and disconnected, it just puts you on edge and disturbs the senses.

Also, the song has Kenny G playing on it. Yeah, the Kenny G. Apparently his son used to be in the band and made a guest appearance in a saxophone duel with pops.

Drawing

No new drawings again this week. Here's an old ink wash style thing I did of Pigwidgeon a while back.

Laughing at: Stavros Halkias

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl878TKI3tw

This dude is one of my favorite recent discoveries. His roasting of Portland in Portland is great, and has one of the best off the cuff roasts I've ever seen. His full length special is super good too.

Learning: Did People Used To Look Older?

This is something I've long wondered about and talked to some friends about. It definitely seems like people from previous generations looked way older when they were young than we do now. The canonical example is the whole "This is Wilford Brimley and Paul Rudd at the same age" thing:

I've always chalked it up to all the smoking and drinking and shitty life decisions and circumstances that are no longer as common, but this video says there's more to it than that.

Watching: Johnny 5 is ALIVE

Google Engineer on His Sentient AI Claim - YouTube

So everyone, including me, was roasting the Google dude super hard when he said their AI thing was "alive". Mostly because this was the main photo of him going around:

And, well, yeah.

But, I watched this video with him explaining his whole point and it's pretty interesting. Sure, he's likely trying to save face by playing it off like "I was just trying to get everyone's attention to talk about something serious" it's just a prank bro, etc. but I think it's worth watching.