Chetzemoka

joined 1 year ago
[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Sure! It's called Ha Long Bay No. 26. It lives here in my house. The artist is Khanh The Bui from Vietnam.

The rocks and boats in the bay are a frequent subject of his. This one I liked in particular for the color palette and also the exaggerated size contrast between the boats and the rocks. Irl the boats are not nearly this small, nor the rocks this large. The exaggerated contrast combined with things like the rocks have reflections in the water, and the boats don't, gives a sort of sense that the humans are temporary and ephemeral compared to the rocks, which are eternal.

Like I said, I stared at this thing for three years before I finally bought it haha. I haven't gotten it framed yet because $$ and also I'm afraid to transport it lol. But I'll get that done.

Here's his page on Saatchi:

https://www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/668015

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 2 points 1 year ago

I think the only thing that really changed is the internet removed the gatekeeping role of centralized information sources. When you were a kid, was CNN still the end-all-be-all oracle and arbiter of concrete truth? In my mom's generation, it was Walter Cronkite, of course. And if you were one of those people who got your information from Coast to Coast AM or other AM radio shows, you were considered a weirdo because if any of that stuff was really true, then Ted Koppel would have reported on it.

But also, looking back now, how fucking bizarre was it that they televised the invasion of Iraq twice? That's some serious colonial behavior and I had no idea at the time. Now I can see it for what it was.

But also, I really wish we had had one centralized authority to give us information and advice about how to handle Covid. So I think there's good and bad things about the change.

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This one particular painting that I've been staring at on Saatchi Art for three entire years. It's the first time I've purchased something expensive that was not also practical, and I'm really happy I finally did. It makes me really happy.

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

As an old person, can confirm it never existed. People have always been like this.

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ayyyy, beratna!

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 2 points 1 year ago

10 mins by car. I don't commute. I refuse.

The best lengthy commuting situation I ever had was when I lived in the Phoenix, AZ area going to community college and also working full time. I'd do homework on the bus to school, then on the light rail from school to work and back again. Total commute time was 2hrs per day, but it felt productive and like it added to my day instead of being a burden and a waste.

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

To be more specific: The show feels like the book authors took the opportunity to revise, edit, and improve their own work. The books provide extra context to some situations, Caliban's War in particular. But it's fun to see the smart decisions they made in the TV show to consolidate some characters and tweak storylines.

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 4 points 1 year ago

3x12s for life 💪 God damn having a three day weekend every week is such a quality of life upgrade

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Yep. Person here with CFS/ME prior to Covid being treated by a research team that is now also studying Long Covid. AMA ✋

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I mean, that's a frequent topic discussed at my church (we study a lot of Indian philosophy, it's not normal lol) - the idea of the difference between love and attachment. The idea that love is something that happens from a place of freedom, not obligation, for example. Where attachment is something that feels compelled.

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'd first ask you to define happiness.

Temporary pleasures will always be fleeting, unreliable, and fraught with danger. Drugs and alcohol feel great in the moment, for example. So does eating junk food and watching TV. But we all know the problems with these things.

Is happiness the pleasure brought by fulfilling hobbies? That's probably a little more productive, but also will never be continuous. And often, if you try to make that your entire life, it loses its joy. The recreation is often the joyful part.

Personally for me, my interactions with patients and being able to use my intellect to help people medically is so deeply satisfying that I'm motivated to go to work despite there being so many things to hate about my job. So that's an interesting wrinkle on the idea of happiness.

I'm not really trying to get at an answer here. We just had a whole meditation retreat at my church about this exact topic: What is the purpose of life? But maybe some ideas to help you clarify your own thoughts about the subject.

[–] Chetzemoka@startrek.website 1 points 1 year ago

The US is the third most populous and fourth largest country in geographic area in the world. We're genuinely far more dependent on rail freight for basic functioning than countries that have had rail strikes.

(Which is why we should nationalize the rail system.)

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