Look At This Shit

Leading up to the election, I kept getting flyers from Americans For Prosperity PAC. Most of them went straight into the trash but I thought I should save them. Now you get to enjoy the ones I did keep.

This is probably my favorite. They made El-Sayed look so evil and sinister.

I thought they didn't connect well with the old communist posters. It could have been so much better.

A little more substance but exaggerations and misleading as to the actual proposals.

So noble looking. Wasn't there supposed be a helicopter?

Just needs a Labatt in his hand.

Sometimes you gotta roll.

Oh yeah, she was running too. Glad they reminded me.

It's Over! ---Of Course It Isn't!

 The election is over and I am genuinely surprised at how well the Democrats did.

Texas Surprises

I thought Talarico in Texas was going to pull it off but only by a narrow margin. It was bigger.

I thought Texas Governor Abbot would still win his election. Gina Hinojosa-who I barely heard anything about-won.

Basically-Texas. No statewide offices were won by Republicans. And the Democrates take the Texas House.

Other Surprising Races

We are saying good riddance to Rep. Boebert.

In Michigan, Bill Huizenga has been ousted. I'm shocked that district went blue.

Mississippi is close to determining that Democrat Scott Colom will be serving as Mississippi's new senator.

Results I Expected

Darline Graham lost her bid to keep her late brother's senate seat for South Carolina.

Michigan had a ballot proposal to call for a constitutional convention and that was solidly shot down.

Michigan Democrats will control the state house, senate, and governorship--which is rare.

Halloween 2026

 

After years of requests from my coworkers, Russell is back!

Two of my workers and I. Dorothy and.... a hobbit?

I was able to leave work early and drive across the state to join my sister and brother-in-law. It was nice to hang out with them as trick or treaters came up. The ramen, pop rocks, fun dip, and the candy necklaces were a hit.

AI Helps Me With Memories

When I was a little boy, there was a movie that I watched. I only had a few memory fragments to go on. I've asked my dad about it it and he didn't know. I've talked about it with friends and they didn't know. I even search google and didn't come up with anything promising. What I had was this:

• A father, mother, and their young boy is thrown into a water well by a gang.
• This feels like a post apocalyptic scenario giving me Mad Max vibes.
• The gang takes the daughter.
• I remember hands gripping barbed wire until they bled.
• I remember the father climbing out of the well and I assume the rest of the movies is about him finding his daughter.

Well I ran that through Chat GPT and it was able to find it---Cyborg. It is a Jean Claude Van Damme movie from 1989.

I want to see it but I'm not holding out hope that I'm gonna find it on any of the streaming services that I have.

Since that was a success I tried a new one:

• It was an anime cartoon. It was similar to Robotech.
• There was a dome on a character's hand.
• The dome was important as if it was an energy source or a weapon.

It didn't seem like much to go on but it found it! Lensman from 1984. And yes, the Robotech ties are evident. Check it out at the 12:55 mark.

ND vs MSU I'm Here for It!

 

One of my coworkers offered to sell me her tickets for the Notre Dame vs. Michigan State game. Of course, I took her up on the offer!

With two tickets in hand, who was I going to bring with me? It turned out to be my friend Season who I've known since high school. She is a Notre Dame fan. I am as you probably know, a Spartan.

Fun fact: our high school's fight song uses the same melody as the Notre Dame Victory March. I couldn't tell you what the lyrics are, though.

Season arranged parking for us. We had to do a little searching and little asking but we managed to get parked.

Our seats were on the lower level at the south end zone. That made it hard to see what was going on when the action as down field (and most of the time it was). Still happy, though. Even when I was attending games at State, I rarely was down as close to the field as I was. 

I had an idea of what was gonna happen but I kept my hopes up for a good fight. That was largely in the first half. I really don't have much to say about the actual game. I'm no sports analysist. I just try to watch the plays.

While I was there, I saw one of my coworkers, Lejan, in my row but at the opposite end. I made my hellos. I didn't see them, but my boss was up and behind me somewhere and two other coworkers were somewhere there as well.

Fortunately the threat of thunderstorms and delay never materialized. There was just some bands of light rain that came through.

We ended up leaving at the end of the third quarter. I wanted to beat the crowd and getting out and we succeeded. No traffic had to be dealt with.

Medical and More

Today I had my first appointment with my new primary care provider. I needed to find a new PCP after a series of severe gout attacks that began shortly after I started losing weight with Zepbound. The latest attack was nearly debilitating, so getting back on allopurinol and having someone monitor my weight loss felt important. 

The appointment went okay. We covered the usual questions about weight loss, sleep apnea, gout, and overall health. I got the impression that my new PCP was not especially enthusiastic about Zepbound, but he seemed willing to work with it as long as I focus on eating the right food groups. 

One surprise was learning that I am Vitamin D deficient. It is apparently significant enough that I now have a goal of taking 50,000 IU per week. Since my multivitamin only has 1,000 IU in the daily dose, that feels like a tall order. 

I left the clinic with a goal of reaching 285 pounds by September 17. It sounds reasonable, but it does add some pressure. 

Later, my sister and brother-in-law, passed through Niles on their way back to Ann Arbor after vacation. We met at 2 Broke Eggs, a local eatery that opened last year but that I had not visited yet. It was good to see them again. My sister talked about applying for a new job, and her husband updated me on his research project about mobile medical clinics. They also shared some family updates, including a cousin's political shift and a possible confrontation with my aunt, his mom. 

In the afternoon, I met with a couple friends to see Stop! That! Train!, starring RuPaul. A little fabulous, campy humor was a welcome way to end the day.

The Looming Tree is Cut Down

See also: Roof Damage – Again! 

The big silver maple tree between my house and the power lines has finally come down. Because of the proximity to both, the cost was high. It ended up costing $6,000 to get rid of it. 

The hole has been filled in with the shavings and I’m told it will settle down. I’m not happy about the mound but I am more happy that I don’t have to worry about a tree crashing through my roof.