Hotshot Spot
A Magnifying glass sundial keeps time in flame rather than shadow
A broken Duckstack is right twice a day1
You may notice today's Duckstack is hotter than usual, as you hold it in your fingers2. This is because it has spent the week in low solar orbit, absorbing the sun's rays3, to gain a strong enough charge to be serviceable as a battery in the apocalypse. Each letter is a microconductor4, allowing each Duckstack to be serviceable in a variety of computational micro situations. However, it we do not need this processing power right now5. Instead, crumple The Duckstack into a cup and hold it to your ear- can you hear the sun? Beautiful.
Market Forces: An Analysis
If you think white lies are bad, just wait until you find out about green ones
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Rev 22:14-15
When I was little someone told me lying is saying something with intent to deceive, and if I told you I swallowed 20 tons of lit dynamite and when it exploded I inflated like a balloon, I wouldn’t be lying
The key element to me is “intent to deceive”. This isn’t to say I’m not a liar, though whenever I have some time to collect myself I try not to6, Just as a matter of tidying up. But: generally I’m in favor of comedic exaggeration. If everyone can tell whether you’re telling the truth or not then you can make a lot more jokes. I personally prefer a non-uptight environment. That means I am okay with a little truth and a little lies, as long as everyone is good natured about it. Its really the bad natured part of humanity that gets to me.
I don’t mean to imply its bad for anybody to try to manipulate their public image, because I think it is important to portray ideals in society. The same way I like to have my house clean when friends come over. Its not because my house is actually clean, but putting a little extra effort into living my ideals I think communicates a little extra respect for guests. But I’m not trying to communicate that my house is “always that clean all the time”, its not deceptive7.
Most therapy-speak terms are deceptive. In many ways, therapy exists to give people the tools to justify themselves, and to guilt trip others (the revolutionary value of therapy is that it allows you to do both at the same time). This is because therapy shifted its domain from what I would call ‘True Mental Illness” such as hallucinations, Obsession compulsions, and homosexuality, and moved more into the domain of “life coaching”, thus becoming competitors with religion. My experience is this has been mostly negative, but the egregious abuse of therapy buzzwords such as “gas lighting” “abuse” “narcissist” and the like is noticeable by almost every. I’ve written on this before, about how when you can use loaded language you can weigh in higher for a little while, but eventually you start to rack up a reputation, and you end up with a boy who cried wolf situation. And that’s a very pragmatic argument for being a realist, but most people aren’t going to cop to that, especially people who have built a lifestyle that relies on a certain amount of charity based on their small exaggerations. I met quite a few people in Mississippi more or less faking injury and illness to get government handouts, and it would be pretty difficult to get these people to give that up off of just honor.
In like manner, people in an argumentative relationship who have been playing the “abuse” card for years for sympathy will find it very difficult to admit that heated disagreements and being beaten are not quite the same thing. They’re attached to it, you see. And they’ve been making emotional investments in that narrative for a while, so who are you to suggest they take a loss?
This is a pattern you will find in all sin, a stage that addiction psychology calls “ritualization” or when I first read about it “fascination”, but it obviously also applies to, for example, the George Floyd BLM riots, divorcing your spouse, or taking your nation to war. It is a process of formalizing your justifications- establishing a need for the “sin”, foremost to yourself8.
You may think me naive9, and I would never try to dissuade you, but I believe most people are good, and have a block-shaped conscience that has to be filed down very carefully before it will fit through an atrocity shaped hole. Everyone understands this rhetoric when they think of the nazis rise to power, but to avoid being overly political I will stick to divorce10, and it goes something like this: If you don't categorize him/her as abusive, then you have to take some responsibility and own that you kind of just want out and its actually selfish. So you've got a primal incentive to deceive yourself because otherwise your conscience will make you really uncomfortable.
How do you cure something like this? The seeds of lies are rooting deep in such a system. You have to make room for them to explore the direction of truth risk free, and you need to gently disentangle the roots from the plumbing, a slow process of introspection where they look at worst case scenarios and see if they actually match, and whether the punishment fits the crime. And in a lot of cases you need to affirm punishment- because a significant amount of people feel compelled to lie, they feel cornered because they feel like if they don’t inflate the circumstance they risk getting nothing. And knowing United States law this is probably true. So if someone has been truly wronged, you need to set in place some assurance of justice- maybe not justice at the same level of their claims, but this is something that frees them from clinging so tightly. Sometimes you can also bribe them, “recouping” their emotional losses. People do a lot better when you treat them with respect, and that means acknowledging their reasons for creating the narratives they did.
The Parable of The Confetti Tree
Hey you, Partying Hard or Partly Working?
Once upon a time there was a great confetti tree- its branches grew and grew, and when the wind would blow its leaves would scatter everywhere, bringing color and life to the grounds surrounding it. It has brought countless generations joy.
One day, an axe was taken to the main trunk, and a great gash of confetti sap sprayed out, not as much as was upon the branches, but still more than could be harvested from the branches by themselves. The axe struck again, and again shoots of confetti sprayed everywhere, further enriching its grounds, and its surroundings knew Fun.
In short order the axe began slicing the trunk rapidly- there was so much confetti inside the trunk, and pressurized. Along with the confetti among the branches, this was surely a double, or even triple harvest. Over and over the axe struck, boring through to the other side, bringing rejoicing and revelry.
Then, the axe made it through the other side of the trunk.
And then, the party was over.
hastory
The toddler likes saying No but keeps getting too excited and realizing that he actually did want the chocolate I was offering him so he switches immediately to “thank you”
This week, I taught Jethro the concept of zero- “So if you have an apple, and eat it, then you will have zero apples.” and his response was quite a bit more enthusiastic than I expected, “WHAT? That’s impossible!” And he started cackling, he really thought it was the funniest thing ever.
He was telling us about his favorite foods: “Goldfish, squishy yogurt, and most of all, dessert”
Jethro came up and headbutted me. “I'm practicing to be a ninja.” wow
He loves rock paper scissors right now. He was battling mama and they both did rock, then he switched to paper and grabbed her telling her “It was a trick!”
We were getting him dressed and he told us he didn’t want underwear, he wanted a pullup. “Why is that?” We asked. “Because I want to exercise to grow big and strong. If you put a pullup on, you can do pullups!”
He’s also been experimenting with sleep talking. Last night around midnight he started shouting “mama mama mama mama mama!” and she finally roused herself to say “yes?” and he was like “I want to go to bed” and the rest of the night was peaceful
Went to the arcade and got a really good video of the toddler trying to play DDR
The toddler has taken to eating ice- just chomping on it for some reason, its pretty disturbing to me but every time he sees me get water he starts panic-asking me for ice and when I go to give him a drink he’s like “No I want the ice” but I guess there are messier hobbies
The toddler climbed over a thing then slid down head first into the gap and couldn’t get out, so he started saying “I’m stuck! I’m stuck!”1 years old is a little early for conceptualizing personal tense, isn’t it? He does the same thing with echoing “You’re so cute!”, he changes it to “I’m coot!” naturally, we're pretty proud of him
This is all theoretical. According to our safety inspections, your Duckstack is in perfect working order
All Duckstacks are designed to be printed out before they are read
getting a tan, you know
even if you just printed it in the safety and comfort of your own home. We use regular ink for our microconductors.
But hang onto it, because there may come a time when you need it to mine The Duckstackcoin™
Here at The Duckstack we have a hard earned reputation for integrity and whim
Though if someone comes away with the impression that I’m perfect, who am I to object? A horrifying tragedy of miscommunication, I will grieve in private
Think “finding excuses to be near the bar”, trying to get provoked. These strategies almost always take the same forms, hence the name “ritual”
who am I to object? A horrifying tragedy of miscommunication, I will grieve in private
The most political topic of all. But secretly.