LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 5 No. 9
Nick’s LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 5 No. 9
To quote the late Sid Vicious, “Regrets, I’ve had a few.” Captured seconds before this was thrown in the trash.
THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION
Hello again everyone. It’s been a few weeks. A week without work. Weeks of EXCITING LIGHTING. Weeks where my Cat 2 mid-life crisis was downgraded to a Cat 3 regular crisis, so my mohawk was no longer needed. Weeks with READER LUNCHES! A day where I watched 4 movies. My first time doing that since I was 19 or 20.
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To all future employers, take note: Man wins court case against employer that fired him for not liking boozy, forced ‘fun’ culture. We are not a family, I won’t acknowledge your existence if I see you. Every minute I spend working is a minute I’m not with my actual family and friends.
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Part 102 of our on-going discussion of AI: The End of High-School English. I found this to be an angle I didn’t even consider and was a very interesting read.
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This fascinating rubric for American healthcare: American healthcare is split into 2 piles. I won’t ruin it, but it’s good…
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As my wife will attest, this is my 2nd favorite YouTube channel: Girl With the Dogs. She is a dog and cat groomer that makes videos about the process and is so soothing to listen to and watch. I also learned I CAN NOT HAVE A DOG. Watching her blow out this St. Bernard in a beekeeper suit triggered remote allergies. However, if you have a GIANT DOG and need me to pet it, let me know. I want to meet a dog taller than me.
video, click to play
THIS IS THE END OF THE INTRODUCTION.
2.5 THINGS THIS WEEK.
ITEM THE FIRST:
THE LITTER BOX THING:
We’ve all heard the dumb Republican talking point about litter boxes in the classroom, even in the Minnesota governor’s race. A few weeks ago, This American Life had a BANGER of an episode - Kids These Days. It had two larger stories, one about school shootings and one about trans kids in schools, but holy fuck did Chana Joffe-Walt bring it home with the ending. THIS HIT HARD.
Reprinted below, but really, go listen to that whole episode.
I saw an article recently, as I was working on this episode, from NBC News. And it weirdly connects the two stories in today’s show in a way I did not see coming. It’s an investigation into a popular conspiracy theory. Maybe you’ve heard it. It is that schools all across the country are offering litter boxes to kids who identify as cats.
If you hadn’t heard this one, sorry. This is all over social media. The story is kids are telling their schools they’re cats, and schools are accommodating them by providing litter boxes.
At least 20 Republican politicians have repeated that this is happening, that this is, quote, “a growing crisis,” that schools are just allowing kids to identify as whatever they want. This gender identity stuff has gone too far, and there are kids who are only communicating in, quote, “barks and hisses,” and it’s gotten so extreme that schoolchildren are now using litter boxes. So that’s the rumor.
NBC News looked into this. They investigated each one of these claims and tried to find schools where this is actually happening. They reached out to every school rumored to have a litter box– over 20 places– and they found one, a whole school district in Colorado. They had kitty litter, but they were not keeping it because kids were identifying as animals. No kids were identifying as animals.
The district, Jefferson County School District, is home to Columbine High School. Schools in the Jefferson district have cat litter in case they have to go into lockdown during a school shooting. The litter is part of their overall plan if there is an active shooter situation. They have litter and buckets so kids have somewhere to pee, somewhere that’s not in a bottle, in a closet.
They’ve kept cat litter on hand for years, along with candy for diabetic students, a map of the school, flashlights, wet wipes, and first aid items. The litter boxes are about school shootings.
I don’t know. I just keep thinking about the hours we’ve spent talking about kitty litter and the money that went into making this non-issue a series of talking points on top of other non-issues that also became talking points about where kids pee in school, when in America, we don’t have a problem of kids saying they’re cats and being provided with litter boxes. What we have are adults who have accepted that school shootings will continue to happen, and they’re preparing. What we have, which kids will tell you, is an actual problem, actual threats, actual fear, actual trauma, actual deaths.
ITEM THE SECOND:
SOWING MY WILD OATS:
I was walking around the local mega church of consumerism with a FRIEND OF THE LIFESTYLE and she reminded me about oatmeal. I dismissed it because it is oatmeal. You know, the boring mushy thing. After a few days of being tired of my spinach shake I have in the morning I thought I would give oatmeal another try. OH GOD IT’S SO GOOD. Oatmeal is BORING and that is a feature not a bug. I think if I were a food, I would be oatmeal.
I’ve been setting up the timer on my rice cooker and getting a pot of steel cut oats set up overnight and ready for me before I go work at the hellmouth.
I’ve even bought an oatmeal colored sweater and made an Oatmeal Day song for those days when I have oatmeal. Yes, my wife has a lot of patience.
Oatmeal–Don’t sleep on it.
ITEM THE THIRD:
THE TEASE:
As 2022 is coming to a close, we do the process of closing out things for our year, setting goals and all that shit. If you recall, 2022 is the year of NAME YOUR FEAR (see https://buttondown.email/lifestylenewsletter/archive/lifestyle-newsletter-vol-5-no-2). Please send in your fears you conquered this year for appropriate applause from the LIFESTYLE community.
2023’s project is coming in hot and inspired by a FRIEND OF THE LIFESTYLE and my money journey I’ve been going on with Ramit (see https://buttondown.email/lifestylenewsletter/archive/lifestyle-newsletter-vol-5-no-7/). YOU HAVE BEEN TEASED.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (please mark “ok to print”):
None. I miss your correspondence.
GRATITUDES:
Richard M. Fierro - Army Veteran Went Into ‘Combat Mode’ to Disarm the Club Q Gunman
The shooting at Club Q was a terrible, terrible thing and sadly a natural outcome of a country with more guns than people, loose laws and a political party that literally demonizes minorities. You know who stopped this shooting? Not 350+ cops sitting around outside, just this unarmed guy and a trans woman patron.
“These kids want to live that way, want to have a good time, have at it,” he said as he described the night. “I’m happy about it because that is what I fought for, so they can do whatever the hell they want.”
Now that’s a fucking patriot right there.
MANDATORY FUN BUCKS MANDATORY UPDATE:
In November, I spent my mandatory fun bucks on:
- Dryer Balls! I’ve been curious how these big wool balls work instead of fabric softener, so I just bought some. I’ve used them for 3 weeks and so far, so good. I have started to use the steam cycle on my dryer to prevent static, though.
- Egg Rolls As long-time friends know, this MANDATORY FUN BUCKS is the new version of FUN POINTS and I decided I wanted an appetizer when I went to Grand Szechuan so fuck it, it happened. What used to be a full Fun Point was now a fractional part of mandatory fun.
- A 28oz clay mug My favorite cup is a 28oz. Red Wing Stoneware tankard. I like to drink large amounts of liquid, including a whole kettle of tea so I need a big boy. With Red Wing out of business, I had to turn to Amazon to find a replacement.
- Desk organization and LIGHTS! I bought a new power strip, PET tubing and fucking LED strip lights to organize, route and light my desk, like a super organized 10 year old.
- $40 tip for delivery people Our washing machine died a few weeks ago and I ordered a new one that was delivered the day before Thanksgiving. There was a team of 4 guys that worked like ninjas. I was only going to tip $20, but I said fuck it. There are 4 of you and it is before the holidays. Enjoy.
Have any of you been inspired to spend money on yourself?
FAVORITE THING TO GO IN MY EARHOLES THIS WEEK:
Ryuichi Sakamoto is dying. He had throat cancer in 2014 and recently revealed he has stage 4 rectal cancer that has spread throughout his body. He recorded what will likely be his final concert, by doing it a song at a time and streamed the whole thing on 11 Dec 2022 since he no longer has the strength to do a long performance.
Ryuichi Sakamoto was a lifelong musician. I first became familiar with him as part of YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra). YMO was a Japanese synthpop band, debuting in 1978. Studying Japanese music over the past 10 years, I quickly became familiar with them and started understanding how influential and ahead of the curve YMO was musically. Here they are in 1980 live - Firecracker Budokan 1980. It is a more technically musical version of the work Gary Numan was doing at the time. YMO progressed into the early 80’s doing the sound New Order was working towards a few years later. This is my favorite YMO song from 1983’s Naughty Boys (their best album IMHO) - Kai Koh.
Another member of YMO, Harry Hosono, was also a huge part of the Japanese music scene in the 70’s and 80’s and one of the defining City Pop artists during and after his work with YMO.
Anyways, as a super influential artist, Sakamoto-san worked with many people like David Bowie, Brian Wilson, Iggy Pop and Bootsy Collins. He starred in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence with David Bowie and wrote and performed what might be the best Christmas song of all time. Even if you haven’t heard it before, there is something about it that is so familiar and incredible.
While not unknown outside of Japan, he is definitely from another era where music was not worldwide and while YMO had some success in the states, the lack of vocals early on and English words later prevented a lot of us from knowing them. Ryuichi Sakamoto is a legend and fundamentally changed how technology and music interfaced.
Here is a clip from his final performance, performing Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. The best thing to enter my earholes this week.
video, click to play
THIS IS THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER
2022 IS ALMOST IN THE BOOKS. IT WASN’T MY BEST EFFORT AT WRITING.
THAT IS ALL.