Moneymaker

I found a way to trick the self-checkout register at our grocery store into charging between 2 and 5 cents for any amount of any type of produce.

Obviously, I’m not going to use it and I alerted the staff. Then I alerted them again a week later. They look unwilling to do anything, and I’m wondering if everybody hates me for spoiling a good little moneymaker.

A Kursk Update

Inhabitants of the Russian city of Kursk not only don’t resist the Ukrainian takeover but speak to the invading soldiers in fluent Ukrainian:

Hundreds of young Russian conscripts surrender willingly because they’ve been raped by Chechens for months and are understandably happy not to be raped any longer.

Trump Interview with Musk

Who else is listening to Trump’s interview with Elon Musk?

It’s a good interview so far.

Proof of Work

I actually worked today!

Here’s proof:

First time since June 14 I’ve done so much work in one day.

Teaching refers to preparing my new course. Classes haven’t started yet.

Translation Doubts

So, fellow language lovers, what would you call this in English:

They have filling, see:

I never make them because I don’t do flour but they are very popular in our cuisine.

It feels weird to call them pies. “Kolia ran to the window holding a pie in his hand” gives me an image of a large thing on a baking sheet. Or am I wrong and “pie” is fine for “пиріжок”?

I have half a mind to go with “pirozhki” because that’s what it is but the plural is throwing me off.

True Love

I have this large fluffy towel that I love. I’ve had it for years. It’s gigantic and very cozy. But it ripped, and I was faced with the need to let it go.

But N took it and sewed the rip. Watched a video to learn, and it came out looking neat and perfect.

That’s true love, people. A 48-year-old very busy professional man sewing a rip in an old towel because his wife loves it.

Since the towel is now a symbol of eternal love, I’ll keep it until I’m buried with it, which is hopefully in a very distant future.

Were You Better Off 4 Years Ago?

In the meantime, the Trump campaign is plastering social media with “are you better off now than 4 years ago?”

Well, obviously we are all massively better now than in August of 2020. Can anybody in the campaign subtract 4 from 24 and figure out that drawing attention to the summer of COVID, lockdowns and BLM riots is not a brilliant move?

In August of 2020, parents were receiving news that schools weren’t going to reopen. It’s a very bad idea to invite people to think back to that time.

I definitely wasn’t better off 4 years ago because I couldn’t live my life as freely as I do now. I couldn’t see my sister and my parents, I couldn’t travel, I had to go to restaurants illegally, I had to go to battle and be excoriated to teach in person, my kid couldn’t go to preschool without a stupid mask.

Maybe don’t remind me of that because no matter who’s specifically to blame for it all, I was not better off. And I’m still angry about it.

Racists for Walz

Governor Walz oversaw an explosion in the violent victimization of black people in his state.

All of these excess deaths of black people happened during Walz’s term in office. Why would anybody vote to bring his policies to the national scale?

Then again, white people seem to be doing great in Minnesota according to this graph.

Campaign Mistakes

What is it with this campaign?

Few things are as moronic as the idea that policy can be plagiarized. If I’m for free speech, am I plagiarizing everybody before me who said they are for it?

The worst part is that the policy itself is stupid. There’s no reason to exempt a specific category of earnings from taxes. It’s all silly, inane pandering.

First Day of the Translation

I have started working on my literary translation of the play The Song of Israel, and it’s not going easy. I know where I’m going to send it for publication, and that’s not great because now I’m writing for a specific person who will read the translation. And good writing, as we know, happens only when you address it to God.

I’ll have to snap out of it in some way.

I’m also annotating the play with relevant historical and cultural information. If I started doing it, then why not just do it right, you know?