— पांच हजार तीन सौ बाईस —
I had no plans last night, so there's not a huge amount to update you on. Shobhit picked me up at home as soon as he returned from work, without even coming inside, so we could go down to Amazon Fresh on 23rd and Jackso for a
third attempt at getting all-purpose flour on sale using the $10 off $20 coupon we had in the mail. The shelves were still cleaned out though, so, there was no hope for that ever happening. We'd have had to know when delivery was happening and be in store at that very minute.
We got back home, and although I was really in the mood to watch a Christmas movie—maybe I will tonight—but, I would rather do that in the living room alongside the Christmas Tree, and Shobhit immediately went into his news programs. (Side note: I overheard a truly ironic comment on one of his MSNBC programs about people on FOX News "talking into an echo chamber," as if that wasn't exactly what MSNBC is as well. It's objectively less
severe than on FOX News, but that doesn't mean it's not still an echo chamber, and for these people—or their viewers—not to see or acknowledge that is dangerously naïve.)
So, after we heated up leftovers and I took my dinner to the bedroom, I watched episodes 2 and 3 of
Wednesday on Netflix, which I am really loving. I only learned this week that apparently it is
wildly popular, which is usually something that might make Shobhit interested in something. But, he still doesn't seem interested in watching this with me.
That said, I also just learned from one of my podcasts that Tim Burton only directed the first four of the season's eight episodes, and evidently the back half isn't quite as good. That's disappointing, but, I'll still watch and ultimately judge for myself.
— पांच हजार तीन सौ बाईस —
— पांच हजार तीन सौ बाईस —
I did actually come back out into the living room for a bit, because Rachel Maddow was talking about
a 2013 attack on a Northern California substation that I had actually never heard of—but I knew, and was right about, what she was leading up to: last weekend's
similar attack on two substations in North Carolina, widely speculated to be a plot against the local queer community which had otherwise been recently terrorized there in a lot of ways. It happened within minutes
of a planned local drag show.
Between this—ableit as-yet unsubstantiated, in the case of motive in North Carolina—and the
Colorado Springs queer dance club shooting last month, I found myself envisioning a similar scenario: just happening to be in a queer space, where we literally gather to feel safe, and having some rando come in and start picking people off with a gun. I reassured myself, to a small degree, by considering the bubble I live in here in Seattle. I do not live in a community like those where these things happened in Colorado Springs, or Orlando, Florida, or maybe Moore County North Carolina, filled with anti-gay and anti-trans bigots. As a general rule, I am surrounded by accepting people in the Puget Sound area, in many cases even celebratory people.
The downside of that is this: just because I live in a bubble does not mean it cannot be penetrated. Even in a state like Washington with comparatively better gun laws—
comparatively being the key word there—guns are easy to come by, and anyone can come in from anywhere. And such people dot the landscape even inside these bubbles, although they are less likely to be radicalized. My point is, just because it's less likely to happen in my home region doesn't mean it can't, or that it would necessarily be surprising if it did. And that's a deeply depressing thing to consider.
Well, that was uplifting, wasn't it? On a brighter note, it's the Christmas season!
Hooray!
— पांच हजार तीन सौ बाईस —
[posted 12:28 pm]
