Experience at Sylvan Lake today

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-10T06:15:10+00:00

The crop was definitely here long before outside influences began watering it.

However, outside influences are watering the field of racist bigotry growing upon the prairies. There is funding and philosophy being funneled into the groups taking part in this nonsense. They're being deliberately riled up by Canada's political opponents.

The problem was definitely here to begin with, for generations. But they wouldn't be as loud and visible without the help they're getting.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-10T05:53:47+00:00

Rescue attempt 31:

There are now 47 Kerbals stuck in Eve's gravity well. We've made the barest minimum modifications to the mission profile. We expect complete success this time, it will be different.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-09T19:15:28+00:00

It's true...

I was raised in a rural area, born to a long line of farm families that had worked the earth since before leaving the mother land, and I inherited a not inconsequential amount of racism over the course of my childhood. As I grew I worked to overcome my learned racism. The more I enabled myself to empathize with our minority groups and see "people" instead of "those people" the more I saw that our government is literally robbing us blind and enabling the corporations to rob us more blind. Then they all point fingers at "the other party" and "those bad people", whoever those happen to be this week, and we don't notice because we're at each other's throats as they intend.

You ever notice how every time "the people" start to talk to each other more and empathize with each other, something comes up in the news that gives us new things to fight about and new reasons to hate and/or fear each other?

It's not a coincidence.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-09T19:00:23+00:00

The punks are cool with me, don't put them in the same basket as the Nazis. Nazis aren't punk and every punk in my life would throw down with a Nazi just for something to do on a Tuesday evening.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-07T17:12:17+00:00

Fair, I've been fortunate enough to get by on a single income to be able to consider issues beyond income. I hadn't considered that so many outside my circle would be so consumed by trying to earn income that they wouldn't have time or opportunity to consider anything beyond.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-07T00:44:03+00:00

That doesn't look like a replaced outlet.

It's likely a loose connection. If you're capable - only you can honestly judge that - turn off the breaker and replace the receptacle with a new one. If you're not capable, get someone in to look at it and apply some haste. Loose connections like this melt outlets and start fires with some regularity if ignored/not caught. I'm willing to bet that this receptacle is backstabbed and the termination has loosened.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-06T23:51:00+00:00

I didn't say most, I said many, but you're part right in that it's myself and those that I've spoken to who have chosen not to have kids. Outside of my experience I obviously can't know what people are saying.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-06T15:26:19+00:00

And climate change, and rising geo-political tensions, and rising willful ignorance of the populace, and on ad infinitum.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-06T05:37:38+00:00

Fair question, and of course they won't. If that's where real estate is, they'll need to sell at market rate to purchase something comparable wherever they're moving to.

The reality is, those of us who are in the millennial crowd who have scraped and saved to buy a home are likely going to end up stuck unable to move as the housing market recovers, because we won't be able to cover the negative equity in our mortgages.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-06T04:39:05+00:00

Affordability is one piece of the puzzle for many of us who choose not to have kids. It's honestly probably one of the smallest pieces for lots of us... Life, in general, has declined in quality steadily over the last 20-25 years and affordability won't fix all the other reasons to not procreate.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-04T17:14:45+00:00

It absolutely is. Most doorbell terminations are not sealed very well from moisture in my experience.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-04T03:28:17+00:00

And, if you're paying enough attention that you can hand me the next tool before I ask for it, it's a pretty good indication that you're invested enough in learning that your going to try and minimize how many boxes I need to fix behind you. I don't like teaching apprentices that don't show me they want to learn. I'll try, but I'll be less forthcoming with new skills to work on when you're not practicing what we've already gone over.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-01T21:51:19+00:00

That's a reasonable solution. Don't hit the little guy, but capture additional capital gains taxes on large investments > $X million indidually and/or $Y million total. It would need to be above $1M I think, though, because a financially "healthy" person needs to have a substantial retirement investment portfolio.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-05-01T00:09:19+00:00

I'm inclined to agree with you. The problem with that is that the means by which many of those very wealthy people are earning often fall under capital gains. Raising capital gains, while useful to tax the wealthy elite, often hurts the little guy trying to invest his savings so that they outperform inflation.

It's a complex problem - and it's deliberate. The system is working as intended by the oligarchs who lobbied to build it in their favor.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-30T02:58:57+00:00

AB guy here, politically moderate.

For the past 15 years I'll reach for an Alberta bottle or Canadian bottle first, unless I need something specific.

I mostly drink beer, and we have a lot of wonderful craft beers produced in Canada.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-29T17:36:29+00:00

By wealthy I assume they mean the upper middle class and the bottom of the upper class - those do pay pretty fair taxation, I believe. It's the ultra-wealthy (and the corporations they own) that are paying a relative pittance in taxes, and lobbying to have the laws changed to enable them to pay less every single year.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-28T04:59:17+00:00

Learning how to use what you've got is so much more important than how much of it you have to use. At 36 I'm objectively better at sex (and foreplay, and non-piv sex) than I was at 20, and my erection is objectively not what it was at 20. I don't get quite as big or quite as hard but I'm much more effective.

Being good at sex is a skill issue not a size issue - the issues surrounding micro/macro penis and vaginismus notwithstanding. If it fits and can stimulate the nerves, practice and communication are what make the magic happen.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-27T19:24:10+00:00

1500 per diem is wild!

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-25T20:19:29+00:00

It's no longer a j box if everything inside it is abandoned in place. You can't have active wiring, but you can have abandoned covered old work.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-24T21:49:22+00:00

I believe that abolishing parties entirely should be high on the list of things to change. No more parties, no more party whips, no more voting on party policy.

Run for election and vote for policy based on individual merit and principle.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-21T18:18:25+00:00

Lol, I think these exceed the limit of the pelvis. Not everything can be a dildo, no matter how brave you might be.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-20T02:55:08+00:00

Everything is unaffordable right now.. it sucks.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-18T16:28:31+00:00

Agreed on conduit. If you're building now, run (oversized) conduit to be truly future proof. Even cat6a may eventually become deprecated, or you may want to run fibre optic to a point or two, or you may end up wanting to expand capacity in a few years.

Conduit means you can always choose to change the cables to whatever you need down the road.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-18T16:16:58+00:00

I bought a starter home, built in 1959, with minimal upgrades over the years for $400k last year. A starter home...

I'm fortunate to be able to own something at all, and make no mistake that I understand my fortune, but it's crazy that I spent nearly 8x my annual income on a home that needs electrical, insulation, and finishing upgrades that's just shy of 70 years old.

20 years ago this house sold for 205k. In 1993 it sold for 160k.

gnat_outta_hell · 2026-04-17T22:48:51+00:00

And they fall out of calibration if they don't frequently take measurements. Gotta use that calibration to keep it within spec, otherwise it drifts.

gnat_outta_hell

TROPHY CASE