Work is too much work — Hanover

This is quite profound and I might use it in my everyday life. Work ought to be an expression of the self, not a hardship that means you only really feel yourself after work. Very much in line with early Marx.

I’ve been a boss and it was good when I saw eye to eye with the underlings, but endlessly hasslesome when I didn’t. Thinking about it now, maybe the fact that I called them underlings didn’t help.

Different shades of the same color, maybe. I'm not sure. The AQI is still 305. I thought it was supposed to get better at night. This doesn't bode well.

Different shades of the same color, maybe — Noble Dust

Yes, I think so.

Talking of colour, I saw some pictures of the New York sky a few minutes ago. Yikes.

This is quite profound and I might use it in my everyday life. — Jamal

If you do, you have to send me a royalty each time you do.

Work ought to be an expression of the self, not a hardship — Jamal

A world of artists and actors.

I'm told at Disney, they teach their employees to all be actors. So, if you're a street sweeper, you should walk around and whistle and pretend you're a happy go lucky street sweeper, saying hello to all passersby.

So whatever you do, just act it out. It's not you. It's all theater

Talking of colour, I saw some pictures of the New York sky a few minutes ago. Yikes. — Jamal

Apparently we have the worst air in the world currently, or at least that was the case earlier. Typical NY shit; top of the list of worst air... :roll:

The best man at my wedding graduated from Disney University and confirms what you say. He worked at the UK pavilion at Epcot—which should be called England Land but isn’t—acting in the role of a pretend Englishman.

I can't really say being a boss is better than being an employee. As an employee, your job is to do your job, but a boss' job is to make sure others do their jobs, and the only ones you deal with are those that don't. — Hanover

After I quit college I worked for a living for 15 years. Ice cream scooper, warehouse worker, carpenter, cabinetmaker. Then I went back to school, got my degree, and became an engineer. Engineers are not automatically bosses, but many of them are or have the ambition to be. I did not, but even I had people to manage either as a supervisor or project manager.

I can tell you that being a boss is better. You get paid a lot more and you get to make decisions, plan how work will be done. I was really lucky to work for the same company for 28 years. I worked with a lot of the same people during that whole period - competent people I liked and respected. Best of all - tolerant and accepting. You may find it hard to believe, but I can be difficult to work with.

So, yes. Being a boss is better.

Many would give an arm and a leg to live in such a magnificent metropolis, even in the times of bad air. So quit grumbling and enjoy your apocalypse. And keep the updates coming.

there was a trope during 2020 in which some people felt a strange sense of comfort during the pandemic — Noble Dust

Well, misery loves company, and a lot of people were miserable (as in disturbed, upset, alarmed... (setting aside the ones on ventilators). I found the sense of crisis and "quarantine" (lockdown) required little change in my routines. Plus it was interesting. But then, I didn't get covid, either -- not until 2022, and then it wasn't all that bad.

Crises can stimulate camaraderie among the not-too-seriously afflicted. Epidemics are interesting events if one isn't suffering from the plague, AIDS, TB, Malaria, polio, etc. AIDS (prior to 1995) had that effect among many gay men who were not suffering at the moment. Floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, fires, riots, etc. can all bring people together (up to a point).

One needs to be in the crisis, but not of the crisis--knowing about the plague without getting the plague. Getting sick and dropping dead tends to be a buzz kill.

So, this apocalyptic orange to brown thick haze isn't killing people left and right (yet) but it IS disturbing, and it's a shared disturbance. So you might well feel something oddly positive.

Several Asian and South Asian cities (like New Delhi and Beijing) have long stretches of bad air pollution, and millions of people still want to be there.

I ran the fish counter of a supermarket a long time ago. What made it bearable was that I was free to arrange the fish in any way I wanted. Customers complimented me on the display and brought their kids to see it regularly (even while they destroyed it by buying the whole salmon centrepiece). A new store manager ordered me to stop messing about with the display and just arrange everything in neat rows, so I quit half an hour after getting to work one day, thereby sticking it to the man.

Several Asian and South Asian cities (like New Delhi and Beijing) have long stretches of bad air pollution, and millions of people still want to be there. — BC

Yes, and I can sympathise. Almaty has extremely bad air pollution but if I were to move to Kazakhstan, that’s where I’d live. It wasn’t noticeably bad when I was there. One of these insidious menaces, I suppose.

A couple of weeks ago I saw a fresh produce stocker very carefully arranging the bananas on the square 2-level display. For instance all of the single bananas were arranged on the top shelf, carefully aligned. It looked quite attractive. The bunched banana were also carefully spaced and arranged.

Why are there so many single bananas? The are all equally phallic, yellow, soft, to firm, to hard (depending) and yet they are alone! Tragic. Will they become incels? Will they spoil on the shelf? Will they never be consumed?

The very small particles of air pollution can damage the lungs of course, but the smallest particles cross the air/blood membrane in the lung and are distributed throughout the body -- brain to toes, and are in no sense beneficial. So the effects are indeed insidious.

Why are there so many single bananas? The are all equally phallic, yellow, soft, to firm, to hard (depending) and yet they are alone! Tragic. Will they become incels? Will they spoil on the shelf? Will they never be consumed? — BC

This amuses me.

It’s probably true though: I don’t think I’ve ever bought a lone banana. When I’m out and about and need some fruit on the go, I buy a fruit that doesn’t give me a litter-disposal headache, like an apple.

So, this apocalyptic orange to brown thick haze isn't killing people left and right (yet) but it IS disturbing, and it's a shared disturbance. So you might well feel something oddly positive. — BC

Maybe, but that wasn't what I was talking about in relation to weird pandemic feels. At the time, I felt as if everyone was for the first time feeling the existential dread I feel on a day to day basis. I know this is corny, but I mean it. Suddenly everyone was questioning existence, and suddenly I felt at home for once. So to speak. As it were. Etc.

What you’re saying finally clicked and it’s possible I felt something similar without knowing it.

Brain meld. :death:

This is yours:

Wow, I offer you a chance to brain meld with me, and you make fun of how small my actual brain is. Small brain people are easily offended, I'll have you know. We're a sensitive group.

Sorry, the unalloyed masculinity of the Shoutbox causes me to be obnoxious.

Ah yes, a common mistake. I'm high off smoke fumes.

High off the smoke of a million burning maple trees.

WIKIPEDIA:

The Indigenous American populations show a lesser genetic diversity than populations from other continental regions.[19] Observed is a decreasing genetic diversity as geographic distance from the Bering Strait occurs, as well as a decreasing genetic similarity to Siberian populations from Alaska (the genetic entry point).[18][19]

The over-all pattern that is emerging suggests that the Americas were colonized by a small number of individuals (effective size of about 70), which grew by many orders of magnitude over 800 – 1000 years.[20][21] The data also shows that there have been genetic exchanges between Asia, the Arctic, and Greenland since the initial peopling of the Americas.[21][22]

So, the later migrations subsequent to the first migration seem to have involved the far northern peoples in Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Apparently there is a little more genetic diversity in the South American Aboriginal peoples, but not because they received additional migrant populations.

million burning maple trees — Jamal

It's not maple trees that are burning -- it's spruce, fir, pine, and tamarack, mostly. After the fire is over, pioneer species of aspen, white birch, jack pine and lodgepole pine will take root in the burnt over areas. The pioneer species are scattered throughout the boreal forest.

Yes, after I commented I checked online, hoping that it was maple trees that were burning, but found out that unfortunately it probably wasn’t.

Bye bye everybody.

You mean “goodnight, see you in the Shoutbox tomorrow” I trust.

I awake to all sorts of new Shoutbox posts.

As a scholar of the time zone, I realize some peoples' nights are other's days, but not so for @BC or @Noble Dust, which means those tireless souls have burned the midnight oil for us, always at work updating The Box (what the kids now call it), so we'll always be informed.

Thank you for this. Thank you.