It's been a moment. Not counting the art challenge and stuff, like, not much since May. The Innocence of Spring has given way to the drought, heat and wood smoke of summer.



Somewhere along the way I went to an early Monday showing of Thunderbolts, the Marvel movie with the antiheroes, but not another Suicide Squad. Despite the bleak trailer, it was in fact funny and upbeat, a good movie, worth the trip. There was only one waif that got rescued. I think Disney demands that there be waifs in their movies, the more destitute the more they like it. Thus the token waif. More recently, I saw the Fantastic 4 movie.



Next paragraph, spoiler alert, but not really. I mean, Disney owns Marvel, so expect schmaltz.

All the way through the Fantastic 4 movie I waited for the tie-in to the Thunderbolts to materialize. That never happened. The movie was OK, except Disney. The Thing had to chum it up with a schoolyard full of urchins and all through the movie the Fantastic Family theme was just grating. Like, ya'll are my family see, and I'm like totally gonna sacrifice ya'll to save this here baby. So the angry mob is like, OK, sounds good, as you were then. Then of course, the baby saves Christmas. *gag*

If I've seen any other movies in between, I've forgotten what they were. The Superman movie played for a week but I was not keen to see it so I missed it. I'm still not keen even though apparently some people might like it?



The amazing spectacle which is Sideshow Trump Does it to America just keeps getting better. Kennedy promotes bleeding by lampreys, Public Broadcasting gets defunded, as do weather satellites and mRNA vaccine research. All restraint and accountability is getting pink slips at the FBI, and tariffs, tariffs for all. It's all very Monty Python, a spectacular descent into madness, like in the Royal Festival Hall Concert skit off Another Monty Python Record. That's it, comedy is dead.

About that tariff game. I got the genius edition right here, in my head. I buy blueberries from my neighbour, $2 a bucket. I sell them composted llama manure, $2 a bucket. I love me some blueberries, I buy $10 worth. The neighbour only buys one bucket of my manure, $2 worth. That is so unfair, that's an $8 trade imbalance! I'm subsidizing my neighbour's lavish lifestyle, I can see them now, eating avocado toast, in my mind. But I have a solution. Let's see, that $8 they didn't spend on my manure (because they only wanted that one bucket-full) divided by the $10 I spent on those delicious blueberries equals 8 ÷ 10 equals 0.8 or 80%. I'll just slam an 80% tariff on my neighbour's blueberries and pay myself 8 dollars for the 10 dollars I spent on blueberries. That totally fixes the trade imbalance! The neighbour got $10 from me and I got $2 from the neighbour plus $8 from myself which is also $10! Brilliant! I'm going to have to cut down on blueberries.

Or the short version: https://xkcd.com/3073/



I'm still working. Summer may be hot but at least it's daytime from the time I get up in the morning to well after I get home. They're still trying to squeeze more secretarial work out of us, the latest forms to fill out are animal welfare reports with multiple drop down menus. That takes several hours to complete. This is for every species. Who needs this data? It's all subjective hearsay. I call it professionalism washing or some kind of esteem washing. The more stuff we document, the more "professional" we appear. It's ridiculous. The time waster this week is that we are going to have to affix labels on every jar, every spice, every dry feed container, every edible item in the freezer, so we know when it might go bad. Or just so it looks good.



Last Saturday I discovered that the fresh, almost full bag of rabbit feed was moldy. I managed to get a fresh, mold-free bag on Sunday. A label would not have done squat.

I need to see about quitting. I hear that that you can buy an "annuity" which pays you a predetermined amount for as long as you live. Then whatever entity that sold you the annuity keeps the rest of the money, if there is any. That might be simple and secure.



I went to get a dental appointment. I have a holey molar. It doesn't seem to be getting better, despite the chalk tablets. It turns out that it's been 9 years since last I went so my appointment won't be until next summer or until someone cancels, whichever comes first. I'm also on a waiting list for my first ever family doctor.