My Week in Review #2

If I were possessed of the slightest knowledge,
Traveling on the great Way,
My only fear would be to go astray.
The great Way is quite level,
But the people are much enamored of mountain trails.
--Tao Te Ching

The snow finally ran its course on Saturday in NE Wisconsin.  I think we only got about 4 or 5 inches total, but it was spread out over 3 days.  Enough to keep things slippery and slightly treacherous.

Look for a Star Wars post this week.  I've been meaning to weigh in with more of an outsider view now that Episode IX is starting to fade out of theaters, although I haven't seen it or VIII for that matter.  I'm so behind on movies and TV.  Still have Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the last season of Orange is the New Black to watch, plus I just picked up a copy of Arrival so I can get more acquainted with Denis Villeneuve before the Dune movie comes out.

I haven't been following much coverage of the impeachment, except for where it intersects with the Democratic primary.  I tweeted about George W. Bush and impeachment, because we had a lot of the same leadership in 2006.  The idea back then was dismissed as unseemly, even though the crime of a preemptive invasion and its consequences in death and dollars is exponentially worse.  Why take a stand now?  Simply because it's Trump?  That's how it looks.  It risks being seen as a hyper-partisan waste of time when members of Congress on both sides are already unpopular for either not getting things done or doing dumb things (like funding Space Force).

I want to write about the Joe Rogan controversy, because I've seen close to 100 episodes and I consider myself a casual fan.  I don't like MMA, so I skip those, and I don't watch his stand-up.  All I really knew him from is Newsradio and an appearance on Chappelle's Show.  I usually stick to the ones about science, history, musicians I like, and psychedelia, but I have seen the ones with Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro and Gavin McInnes too.  I'm anything but alt-right, and I would argue those videos should be readily available.  That deserves a post itself, soon.

Bitcoin's seeing another nice boost today, up around 4% to about $8650.  A couple years ago I tried trading bitcoin hardcore and got my clock cleaned.  Nowadays, since I've been watching it for month after month, I'll scoop up $300 or $400 worth if it looks at or near a bottomed-out level.  Ride it up for a modest gain and clean the slate.  The rest of my cryptocurrency all came through free methods like phone apps, websites, and wallet giveaways.  Leave a comment to learn more or watch for future posts.

If it's not painfully obvious, I'm fairly new to social media in its current iteration.  My sister was big into online groups back in the 90s and I attended some IRL meet-and-greets with her.  In 2002, I was big into online diaries, before they were called blogs.  I had accounts on freeopendiary, diairies.suchisthis, and InTheWire and got to know several fellow Wisconsinites IRL and folks from all over.  I would say it's not much different now, plenty of phonies and vitriol, just amplified.  I read a lot of tweets the wicked side of me wants to respond to, but I always give myself at least a couple minutes to digest them.  Then come up with a reply I won't be ashamed of later.  Then get bored and move on.  I don't see much point in punching people directly unless they're in a position of power, like the DNC.

Anyway, if you have any tips or pointers on how I can up my social game, leave a comment and thanks for reading to the....