I love hanging out with older people. Today I went to lunch with two friends in their seventies. We talked about:

• The friends who died recently with a detailed breakdown of their illnesses and symptoms.
• Tissue necrosis with a detailed and actively savored descriptions of symptoms.
• The ailments they suffer from currently, as well as the ailments they think they or their friends might suffer from with detailed descriptions of symptoms.
• Bedbug bites and a detailed description (including a physical demonstration) of the symptoms.
• A list of recent vomiting and incontinence episodes with – yes, you guessed right – a detailed description of the symptoms.
• A list of traumatic injuries suffered throughout their lifetimes.

As a result, I lost my appetite and ate almost nothing, which greatly advanced my dieting goals. Also, I feel young.

That’s a very, very conservative estimate. Russia has been trying to take Bakhmut since August. Sacrificed at least 20,000 soldiers cannon fodder. And still hasn’t taken it.

Bakhmut is a very tiny, militarily insignificant little town. There’s no military rationale that explains sacrificing so many soldiers and an enormous amount of equipment to take it. If Ukrainians decide to leave Bakhmut, there are 6 more towns like it that Russians would have to take to get anywhere.

The massive sacrifices Russians have made to take Bakhmut have no parallel in modern military history. There’s no strategic reason for the effort. It’s done simply because Putin seems to consider it a matter of personal honor to take Bakhmut.

Ukrainian efforts to keep Bakhmut do have strategic meaning, on the other hand. Ukraine is preparing a big counteroffensive. It makes sense to grind down Russian troops and equipment near Bakhmut, forcing Russians to bare crucial parts of the frontlines where the Ukrainian offensive will take place.

I’ve heard that some Russian parrots rare geniuses have declared that whatever Russia is doing around Bakhmut constitutes proof of Russia’s imminent victory in the war. We’ve been hearing from these same people about this imminent victory all through Russia’s failed offensive on Kyiv, Ukraine’s brilliant counteroffensive in the Kharkiv Region, Ukraine’s lightning-fast counteroffensive and liberation of Kherson, and so on. Curiously, the very obvious failure of Russia’s imminent victory to transpire has not dissuaded the followers of the Russian plants in question from trusting them. And what do you call a person who consents to being fooled, time and again, by the same dishonest propagandist?

Recently, a batallion of Russian soldiers from Irkutsk filmed a teary-eyed plea to Putin complaining that they were given no weapons, no equipment and no training before being sent to Bakhmut. The video went viral but by the time that happened, they were all dead, every single one of them. These are all completely untrained civilians who aren’t even given a pair of boots. They get mowed down before they can say boo, let alone achieve anything. If that sounds like a victory, I wonder what your definition of a major trouncing is.

I looked up the directions to my accountant on Google Maps, and the app told me his office is 47 minutes away. This is a very tiny town, and nothing is 47 minutes away. I stared at the app for a long time before realizing that I’d been using it for walking directions in Spain, so the app was still trying to tell me how to get places on foot.

I’ll definitely miss my 15km daily walks I made in Spain. We have great hiking trails in the area but who has the time to walk for hours each day?

I spent the whole morning translating the testimony of a Ukrainian mother whose 8-year-old daughter was torn to pieces by Russians and managing the complaints of faculty too traumatized by the threat of COVID to teach in person in 2024.

If anybody can’t contain the need to reiterate their favorite slogans about “the proxy war”, “the need for peace negotiations”, “the military-industrial complex”, “Russia is winning” and “NATO expansion”, now is the perfect time because I’m just in the mood.

I saw the whole video, too. And many, many others that are much worse. Shame on you, low-IQ bits of fluff who chirp stupidly about “a proxy war” because it makes you feel like less of a moron to use smart-sounding vocabulary.

And good morning, everybody else! I’m back home and have moved to a different app because the WordPress app has been discontinued. If you notice any glitches or anything unusual, please let me know.