I made a you-tube video on this subject today. It’s worth a watch if you haven’t already seen it.

Anyways, please have a good day, and here’s today’s postings…

Andrea Kowch – Soiree (2019)

Mysterious Satellite Captured on Camera: The UnXplained (Season 3)

Woman Describes What Life Is Like When You Are Ugly

October 26, 2022

First, you have to go back in time to when you’re a child. From a young age, you start hearing comments about your appearance. Random family members will say things like, “You may not be pretty, but you have brains. Being smart is so much more important.” Or, “Don’t worry, you’ll grow into you looks some day.”

Even starting preschool, you start getting mean comments. Kids call you names and point out any flaw you have. Kids don’t want to play with on the playground, and will tell you it’s because you’re too ugly. You get older and get used to mean comments and exclusion. But it gets even worse when you reach jr. high. The boys start making jokes about how gross you are, say things like, “I wouldn’t fuck her with a paper bag over hear head.” They laugh and make comments while other students join in. They pretend to ask you out, while laughing, and then run to their friends joking about how disgusting you are.

Mean girls make fun of your clothes, shoes and anything you do or wear. When the teacher assigns them to be partners with you on a group project, they act visibly disgusted, and beg the teacher for a new partner. The teacher then laughs and says, “In the real world you have to work with all types of people you don’t like, so get used to it.” Deep down you’re dying cuz all you do is act polite and normal, yet you’re hated and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Of course you make some friends, but they feel awkward and uncomfortable when they see you being bullied. They like you and feel bad, but there’s nothing they can do about it. It’s humiliating, because you don’t want your friends to pity you. You come home from school, sad and depressed.

You know the way you’re treated is because of physical features you can’t change. Your mom tries to comfort you by saying, “You’re beautiful the inside”. Your dad makes light hearted jokes to cheer you up, “Fuck those vapid mean girls, one day you’ll grow up to be rich , and you’ll be laughing at them.” Deep down you know this isn’t true, but you try and focus on other things.

You get older. Start high school and begin puberty. You see all the girls you are in school with look more beautiful than ever. Your body and face does not look like theirs at all. You see them in the locker room and they all look normal. Your saggy uneven boobs, and boxy body fail in comparison to them. You ask yourself why this happening. You ask god, why your body isn’t pretty like other girls! Why your boobs and body are misshapen! You didn’t do anything! You just grew wrong.

Every time you look in the mirror you want to die. Everyday you see girls better looking than you, and feel intense envy! You start to feel lonely. You see other girls getting boyfriends and going to dances. You realize no guy would ever want to date you, and those pretty prom dresses wouldn’t even look good on someone as oddly shaped as you.

Boys are still mean to you, or completely ignore your existence. You try and talk to a guy you have things in common with, but he acts uncomfortable and tries to leave the conversation immediately. You then see that same guy laughing and flirting with another girl, five minutes later.

Valentine’s Day is sin fuel. You see all the girls getting flowers, candies, and cards. You get nothing. You can only imagine what your life would have been like if you were genetically normal.

You want a boyfriend, but guys won’t even treat you like a human being. They either see you as a joke, or they don’t see you at all. You walk home from school, and you hear grown men yelling obscenities to you from their car windows. “Kill yourself fatty”, or “Damn that’s an ugly bitch”. This happens every time you go for a walk.

You graduate high school with very little social experience, a few friends that you hang out with occasionally. But they have other friends and party’s to go to, so they’re busy a lot. They don’t invite you, because they assume you won’t enjoy it. You don’t know why they think that, because you’ve never been to a party, so even you don’t know if you’d like it or not. You understand that it’s probably because your ugly, and you’d probably be excluded from conversations anyway.

You get a job and realize work and high school are weirdly similar. No one openly bullies you, but people treat you rudely and ignore you. The Beckys, Stacys, and Chads are treated better and given more respect. You are invisible and only a few people talk to you and are nice. You’re used to it though. You try and talk to your single male co-workers to see if maybe one of them may possibly be interested. Sometimes you forget you’re ugly for a moment, and think you have a shot. Nope, he’s not interested, and is a little insulted you even tried to flirt with him. He’s obsessed with a Stacy, that is in a happy relationship and barley knows he exists. Oh well you focus on your career.

You try internet dating. Tinder is a toxic waste dump, but you’re desperate. You get very few matches. When you match with someone, you text, “Hi, nice to meet you”, and then they unmatch instantly. Eventually you switch to bumble because you hear it’s less sleazy. You get a few matches to text back. Only one word answers. No effort. You don’t get asked out on dates, only Netflix and chill type deals. Also you have to drive to their place, and don’t forget to eat before you come, there won’t be food. You go. Remember no man has ever even had a conversation with you before.

You jump at any opportunity to get to know someone. You want a connection. You want to feel like a Prom Queen on Valentine’s Day. But you quickly realize that’s not going to happen. The men you meet are not nice. They don’t want to get to know you. They don’t care about your hopes, dreams, or career ambitions. They don’t even seem to like you. You try to get to know them, but every conversation turns sexual. You dodge, but then they get annoyed. They say oddly mean things like, “You’re not really my type”, or “I was hoping you’d look better than your photos”. They tell you, “you should leave before my roommate gets home”. You’re crushed because all you ever wanted was love and acceptance. You know that because you’re ugly, you’ll never find a good man that will love you, and treat you well. You’re lonely and it never gets better. The end!

Pizza Hut unchanged

“The Pizza Hut in my hometown looks unchanged from the 1980s when I first came here.”

What Are The Downsides of Living In Japan?

November 3, 2022. From HERE

Lots of mindless, pointless paperwork for everything. If you want a new phone contract, for example, come back in two weeks because the phone company had to contact the manager of the branch, who has to contact the district manager, who has to contact the regional manager, who has to contact the president of the company to approve it, and all of them have to hanko (sign via a special stamp) the documents approving you. (This may be slightly exaggerated, but only slightly.)

Houses are generally built on top of each other. Most places you can literally reach out your window and touch the next house… assuming you can find a house and not just a tiny apartment.

Houses are also not an investment here.

They’re more like cars–once you drive them off the lot, they depreciate in value immediately.

No one wants a “used” house, here.

After 30 years they just tear them down and build new ones. (Or they just keep living in dumps for years and years because of money/legal reasons.)

Land is what is valuable, but they have loads of rules about how much you can own, what you can build on it, and so forth. If you want a modest house with a big yard for your dog, don’t come to Japan. (Case in point, I live in a cute, tiny old run down Japanese house by myself.

All of my American friends, upon seeing photos, say, “It’s so cute and small!” All of my Japanese co-workers say, “Don’t you feel lonely by yourself in that big house?”)

No napkins or paper towels anywhere. Also, no trash cans. You have to carry your trash with you until you find either a convenience store or your house to throw it away. (Also they take recycling to an extreme here. Which I totally approve of. But making sure you’re properly washing and sorting your garbage and disposing of it on the right days can be an ordeal.)

Because I am not Japanese, I will always be a foreigner. Even if I live in Japan for 80 years and learn perfect fluent Japanese and have a Japanese spouse and Japanese kids, I will always be assumed to be an ignorant foreigner and treated differently as such. Obviously people I see every day would eventually know better, but it’s frustrating to say “konnichiwa” and have a stranger go “WOW YOU SPEAK SUCH GOOD JAPANESE” based on that single word. Or questions like, “Can you use chopsticks?” or “Can you eat sushi?” etc can get tiresome.

Not the end of the world, but worth mentioning.

The price of fruit is really high, usually. I suck it up and deal, but it is a downside, especially because I really like fruit.

EVERYTHING is “seasonal.” (Not EVERYTHING but almost everything.) If it’s not the season for corn, you pretty much can’t find corn in the supermarket. If it’s not the season for strawberries, forget it. If it’s not the season for grapes you can’t find them.

Some of it makes sense, some of it has taken a lot of getting used to. Japan LOVES it’s seasons, and really celebrates them with a changing menu. I’ve learned to embrace and look forward to the changes, but it can be frustrating.

Cars are expensive, parking cars is expensive, and toll ways/freeways are even more expensive. This isn’t an aspect I deal with much because I don’t have a car, but it is part of the reason why I don’t. Too expensive!

Gay rights are lagging behind the rest of the world, if that bothers you. The country isn’t very religious (and the dominant religion is not Christianity) so there isn’t bigotry for gays in the way that there is in America, but same-sex marriage isn’t recognized here, and it’s extremely rare to see openly gay people out and about. Partially due to Japanese intensely private home lives, but also due to a general attitude about gay people kind of just not existing. (Which is obviously false.) It’s getting better, but it’s still got a long way to go.

Censored porn. With the internet it’s not really a big deal, but it is still nevertheless mind-boggling.

Racism is real here. Not so much against blacks (though there is some of that), but against other asians. All Japanese seem to hate Chinese and Koreans. There’s good reasons for it too, considering the wars and the hoards of rude tourists from those countries… but it’s a blanket statement that tends to bother me. “I hate rude Chinese tourists” is very different than “I hate Chinese people”, you know?

Most of my elementary school aged students hate Korean and Chinese people–for no reason other than that their parents do.

Which leads me to the fact that individuality and critical thinking is not valued well here. Japan works well the way it does because of the “group think.” The reason people don’t steal your wallet is because they wouldn’t want someone to steal THEIR wallet. It’s a polite world where no one wants to stand out.

They have a saying that the “nail that sticks out gets hammered down” and so forth. Conformity is key. Don’t express your opinions, don’t stand out, don’t draw attention to yourself.

This is great when you’re on a super crowded train and everyone is quiet and polite and it’s almost peaceful despite the crowds. It’s not so great when you’re trying to encourage an eight-year-old to think for themselves, to express their opinions.

Even getting them to say what their favorite fruit is sometimes can be difficult. By the time they’re in junior high school, it’s impossible. They don’t want to ‘think’… they want to know the right answer so they can regurgitate it to me.

The education system here is all kinds of broken… but that’s true of America as well. They’re broken in completely different ways, but they are still both quite broken. The Japanese education system is maddening. Too much focus on tests and memorizing answers.

– JustVan

Strange death

Confessions Of An Asexual Woman

October 25, 2022

To be honest, it feels completely normal. I can’t imagine being any other way, therefore I can’t say definitively how it is so different from not being asexual. Not to say that I haven’t perceived some differences while growing up.

While in school, most notably middle school, when relationships were becoming more and more of interest with my peers, I always wondered what the point was. Because I felt no internal stirrings of being physically interested in anyone I misguidedly perceived that everyone else was feeling nothing, which lead me to wonder “Why”. It was hard for me to think of an end game.

Eventually, I realized that they were feeling sexual attraction which made sense to me, but oddly enough I never actually wondered why I wasn’t feeling it as well. My first question was answered and my quandaries kind of stopped at that point. I started reading more about sexuality and books with relationships, alright I admit it, with romances in them, and piece by piece I felt more and more clued into what I couldn’t directly experience. For the most part I supplemented my understanding of sexuality and relationships with various forms of media, and yeah that includes porn. Really who hasn’t seen it?

When I found out about someone having a crush on me I felt absolutely nothing. Most of the time I wondered why they felt I needed to know that bit of information since I couldn’t conceive anything resulting from that piece of knowledge. Whenever there was situation where it was an opportunity to think about myself in a relationship or in a situation where I was a participant in intimate activities, my mind just came up blank. Conceiving of other people in those situations, no problem. That is easy to imagine but myself, I couldn’t think of anything even if I tried.

So, slowly and surely I began to wonder why I hadn’t felt anything yet, or even imagined anything like that for myself. I eventually confided in a gay friend pondering that I might be gay since I couldn’t feel anything for guys, despite the fact that I also felt nothing for girls. But at that point, I like many people mistook thinking that being gay is at least an absence of feeling attraction for the opposite gender. But telling that friend was a big mistake since I believe he immediately told people that I was gay. Not that it changed anything, my high school was extremely tolerant. Our homecoming king was openly gay for god’s sake. So after that I stopped wondering if I was gay or not since I did realize that I also felt nothing for females.

Then I entered into the mindset that it will happen when it happens. Maybe from some of my mom’s trashy romance novels (Note the two adjectives: trashy and romance. I am not saying that all romance novels are trashy), I got the idea that my sexuality will one day be unlocked by some guy that comes along, or girl (I was still open to finding out that I was gay all along). That people only feel their sexuality as a response to other people rather than it being internally fueled. It kind of went against what I had learned but it was the best idea I could apply myself since otherwise I had no answers about myself. It was a stand in answer so that I didn’t have to many questions about myself.

Eventually I met a guy who was classically attractive, was interested in me and I found a bit interesting. Mostly, I was curious about dating. I couldn’t pick for myself so I let someone pick me. I was kind of shocked with the intensity this guy courted me. Never to the point that I felt in danger but just that I was surprised at the first hand experience of such intense attraction, or really any attraction to me. Eventually he asked if I was a virgin, and then when he found out that I was one he asked why. And still I couldn’t really give an answer. I didn’t have religious reasons, and after high school I had realized that I never had a crush either. I knew I wasn’t a prude. I just never felt like that towards anyone. Eventually I broke it off because I couldn’t really understand his quickly escalating feelings nor reciprocate them.

Eventually I got into a relationship, my longest with a guy who I actually liked, he wasn’t what I found aesthetically pleasing but he was intellectually stimulating. At first I just assumed that he was like me not as inclined to physical contact. When I was with him I never thought about kissing or any other intimate contact, which is why after three months of dating he just kissed me right after seeing a movie, I was surprised. But I didn’t feel anything really. And then again I questioned why I wasn’t feeling anything. I would try to give myself goals, to do things that I thought where just done in relationships. Like “Next time we go to the movies, lets make out.” But in terms of physical activities such as that in the moment I would never be able to think of it. It was like as soon as a person comes into the room it was nearly impossible for me to even think about sex.

But just because I had a hard time just thinking about sex or physical contact at certain moments, didn’t mean that someone else wasn’t thinking of it. Eventually started inquiring about more contact, eventually asked me point blank if I was a lesbian since I turned down all of his advances. Then I got into the mindset that I just needed to start doing it and then I would like, despite the fact that I knew sexuality didn’t work that way. But in the reality of no answer, I just defaulted on the same tired old explanations of female sexuality, which are flat out wrong. I started lying that “sure yeah” I liked this or that, just to get him to move on to the next thing or to just get it over with. But each time my hope that it would get better, was diminishing every time I did anything with him.

Activities with him became a bit stressful. I would be careful try to not use any sexual jokes, innuendos or wear anything that would remind him that he liked to touch my body. And I never knew when he would request contact. Some times it would be a great time with him, making fun of bad movies, cracking jokes at the expense of old co-workers, playing card games, and talking about our days. I would always breath a sigh of relief when he didn’t request contact on those days. But when he did request contact I froze and would request time to mentally prepare which was me sitting in the bathroom alone.

But then he started to become more morose and moody. He didn’t want to communicate with me what was wrong, and I was honestly so clueless about the fact that lack of sexual contact was really that distressing to most people. Also it was the obvious fact that his girlfriend clearly didn’t find him sexually attractive and visibly was distressed at the idea of sexual contact with him. He felt unloved and unwanted, he knew that I cared for him but still he couldn’t change the fact that my lack of reaction to him deeply effected him. He did try. He always asked me what I would like or want. That he was open to ideas for us to try, but at those times I always drew a blank.

I honestly felt like there was something wrong with me. I looked online for some type of female arousal medication, something that would make me want sex or any type of contact, but I didn’t find much. Compromise in this relationship didn’t feel like much of a compromise. I didn’t want to have sex or any touching, while he did.

Long story short, I was watching a show on the LGBT channel LOGO called 1 Girl 5 Gays (1G5G) and the host asked the question, “Do you think asexuality is real?” and I don’t know why I perked up at that question since how the question was answered it didn’t even explain what it was. So I looked it up, and felt so much relief that I could actually put a name to what I was feeling.

And long long story short. You know what happened we eventually broke up since building feelings of resentment and bitterness were starting to ruin genuine good memories I spent with person. We are still friends. I still use his Netflix and he can use my HBO GO account. That type of thing. We still talk, but now it is such a relief that I no longer have to be ever anxious to perform things I honestly could not keep doing any longer.

And long long long story short. Something happened that I never thought would. I actually met face to face another asexual, and not putting names to anything, but now having a close friendship with someone without the worry of having to deal with sexual attraction or sexual needs is so incredibly freeing. In this relationship I haven’t felt so relaxed before, I was beginning to think that it was somewhat impossible for me.

So now I hang out with a person in which I just feel totally normal. Other people looking into our relationship probably think it is a “normal” relationship that includes sex, we are well aware of this and we laugh it off. For the first time I am really optimistic about relationships.

So yeah, being asexual, it feels normal but you are aware that others are humming to a tune you can’t quite hear but you can hear everyone else humming. And people are expecting you to dance to this tune, and dance partners are frustrated that you can’t find the beat and/or that you don’t feel the need to dance. If you don’t know you are asexual, relationships can be difficult, confusing, and a bit painful. But once you know your orientation, things get much easier when you have to communicate what you can and can’t do in a relationship. The big thing is knowing yourself and not letting anyone else dictate to you what you are and what you really want and need.

– Chloe Shani Malveaux

Two cats

Two teenagers killed their Spanish teacher over bad grade

A pair of teenagers in Fairfield, Iowa are going on trial for murder — after they allegedly beat their Spanish teacher to death over a bad grade.

Prosecutors say Jeremy Goodale and Willard Miller ambushed 66-year-old Nohema Graber while she was taking her daily walk in the woods in November of last year, beat her over the head with a baseball bat, then hid her body under a tarp and a wheelbarrow.

Goodale and Miller have both been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder and will be tried as adults.⁠

In Iowa, the penalty for a first-degree murder conviction is life in prison. Iowa supreme court rulings require juveniles convicted of even the most serious crimes to be given a chance for parole.

Kekoa

When my wife and I decided to adopt Kekoa from the shelter, we first had to pick up the necessary supplies, get his room ready, and grab a quick lunch.

In between munches, we debated the different names to give him that matched his personality and his upbringing.

After much deliberation, we found that ‘Kekoa’ matched him best, which is Hawaiian for‘Brave and Courageous’.

Before he was brought to the shelter, he lived a hard life on the streets. He had wounds on top of wounds, and at one point, his tail had been broken in multiple places. Poor kitty!

Because of his rough life, we felt that Kekoa matched him to a “T”.

As best as the shelter vets, and our personal vet could determine, he was 7+ years old. Not much to go on, but it’s enough for us.

He’s now celebrating his ninth month with us, and his personality (and vocabulary) are enormous.

In the household hierarchy, he’s at the top of the Foodchain, followed by Her Royal Highness, the Princess Oreo, then my wife. Me, I’m the bottom feeder, LOL. 😹

His other attributes are that he’s VERY affectionate, playful, intelligent….almost to the point of being problem solving. He’s also extremely energetic and athletic.

He routinely jumps from the kitchen push-through counter to the living room coffee table, a distance of over seven feet, with ease. His landing may not be the most graceful, but it’s always extraordinary to see him do it all the time.

“Who will benefit the most if the USA/China go to war?”

Seriously! What the hell is wrong with so many of you and this whole stupid “war” thing with China the US? Don’t you have anything better to do?

There will be absolutely no benefit to any country if the two countries were to (although highly unlikely) go to war with each other!

The financial losses would be catastrophic, not to mention the loss of human life too!

Get a grip of reality please, and stop asking such antagonistic as well as ill thought out questions!

SKYFALL | “007 Reporting For Duty”

15 American People Who Don’t Have A College Degree And Make Over $100k Reveal What They Do For A Living

November 7, 2022

1. I’m a welder, moved my way around and now in aviation and have been for a while now. I cleared $100k back in October, probably going to end the year around $120k at 26. What I do is weld main component parts for jet engines. Combustors, bearing housings, vane blades, so on.

No degree, but I did go to vocational high school. This isn’t the route you’d have to take either. People can learn it on the side, as welding is more of a “show us you can” type of work. My field requires multiple tests, both written and physical(which may require some schooling on welding basics) then weld various metal together, X-ray, cut apart, so on.

I’m very fortunate to be in a laid back environment, I have an area all to myself where I’m rarely bothered. Nothing I lift is strenuous, most of my work takes place in a chair. Love it though, wouldn’t want to do much else. Also to note, my job is union and I strongly suggest union to blue collar people. You’re not harassed by management, have a higher entity protecting your rights to do the job you do, and ONLY do that job and not someone else’s. And, unions pay way more, clearly.

2. My brother-in-law’s 3 sons are all journeyman electricians (dad is a master electrician). 2 of them are high school dropouts. 2 of them make over $100,000. The youngest makes about $85,000, but is gaining on his brothers.

3. Nuclear plant operations. You can get into an Senior Reactor Operator licensing class with certain experience or education. A huge number of the SROs are are ex-Navy nukes.

The Navy requires a HS diploma. Job pays usually starting of over 100K.

4. Bartender in a high end resort town. I work my ass off during the seasons but off season is easy.

5. Husband is a union tower crane operator. He dropped out of high school, got his GED at 25, joined the union at 29 and at 34 makes almost $200k a year. It’s a good gig as long as you don’t mind heights.

Best way to get into cranes is to call your local IUOE. Go through the apprenticeship program and work your way through your certifications. Build relationships with your peers and maintain your work ethic. You won’t see the out of work list, you’ll be requested for jobs.

6. I work in IT for a major telecom. No degree but several certs. A nice easy 9-5.

7. My wife made $290,000 last year, and is estimated to make $350K this year.

She owns a business that does like $1.5 million in sales of surgical device equipment to hospitals. She sells stuff like shoulder and hip replacements, the plates and screws used to fix broken wrists, nerve grafts, and even these crazy magnetic nail things that allow people with different length legs to have length added, or for people with dwarfism to add up to 4” of total height.

She does not have a college degree, but she joined the army and did a 1-yr program to become a radiologic tech. She did that job in the operating room during surgeries for a couple years, and meeting other sales reps is how she came into her job. She was such a high-seller that her first boss was afraid she would quit, and then his business would fail… so he offered her 50% ownership of the company. Since then she has started up a 2nd business selling other, non-competing products, so that she gets 100% of the profits, versus half.

8. I’m a freight conductor for a class one railroad in the United States. $108,000 a year. Never stepped foot in a college before, I’m 22 years old.

9. I work as a “B” Pressure welder in Canada. I have my own rig (Truck with welding equipment in it) and I average $125 / Hour.

Depending on the work available and how much time you’re willing to put in, you can make anywhere from 100k-400k. Last 3 years I’ve made 250k working 9 months of the year and taking 3 months off.

10. I’m a recruiter. No college degree or certifications. I had 5ish years of retail/food experience, ending that run with a “General Manager” title before getting into recruitment.

Pretty much anyone can get into a recruiting job if you apply to work at staffing agencies (Randstad, Adecco, Robert Half, Kelly Services, etc). Agency recruiting is a grind, but you can make a ton of money with the commissions – and the base salary without commissions is normally plenty to live on. And if you pay your dues with a staffing agency for a few years, you can transition into a corporate in-house recruiting job after that. My first year in staffing, my base was $40k and I made $70k total that year including commission. My second year, my base was $42k and I made $90k including commissions.

Then I moved into a corporate recruiting job with a well-known tech company. The base was much higher, but I took a bit of a pay cut overall in exchange for better benefits and work-life balance. My first year there, I was at $70k base and around $85k total including bonuses. I just completed 3 years there, going into my 4th year now – currently at $80k base and $100k including bonuses. I have a raise going effective in January to $90k base and $115k including bonuses.

If you go into recruitment, go with either healthcare (nursing or physicians, not allied) or tech recruiting. That’s where the money is. You won’t make much recruiting for more blue collar industries.

11. Own a private jet catering company, you’d be surprised what the richest 1% of people are willing to spend on stupid things…

12. Train Conductor. Pay pretty much fluctuates depending on how often I wanna work or not. All on the job paid training, with overtime. Pretty easy job all things aside, just have to live with being on call and being gone from home 2 days at a time.

13. Air traffic controller. Made over $160k last year, but that was with a lot of forced overtime.

Most of my co-workers are veterans who got into ATC in the military. Many people–whether they have military experience or not– don’t make it through training. My facility is sitting at abysmal success rate of about 20% right now.

14. Union plumber in NYC. Around 140k a year if you work year round steady benefits included.

Got the job by waiting outside the Local 1 training facility for 3 days until they gave out the 1000 applications. Happens once every 2 years and they accept on average 200 of the applications. Pretty lucky.

15. I’m a journeyman power lineman, and my base is over $100k. With tons of over time, (most of it double time) some guys pull in over $200k. 1

Lonely woman

BABYMETAL – NO RAIN, NO RAINBOW

Pickle

Found in a secret room

Hilachas (Guatemalan Shredded Beef in Tomato-Tomatillo Sauce)

“Found online; posting for ZWT 7-Central America (Guatemala). Recipe states: Pair it with a side of rice and fresh corn tortillas for a full meal.”

• 2 lbs beef flank steak or 2 lbs skirt steaks, cubed
• 5 cups water
• 2 -3 tablespoons oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 cup tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup tomatillo, chopped
• 2 -3 guajillo chilies, warmed over a flame, deseeded and chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 lb potato, peeled and chopped
• 2 -3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• ¹⁄₂ cup breadcrumbs
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped

Directions

• Place the beef, water and a big pinch of salt in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the beef is very tender.
• Remove the beef to a bowl, reserving the broth, and set aside to cool
• When cool enough to handle, shred the beef with your fingers and set aside.
• While the beef is simmering, place the onion, tomatoes, tomatillos and chiles in a food processor or blender and puree, adding a little water if necessary.
• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium flame. Add the onion-tomato puree and simmer until the puree is cooked down and darkens somewhat in color, about 10 minutes. Do not burn.
• Add the shredded beef and about 3 cups of the broth to the onion-tomato puree and season with salt and pepper. Simmer for about 15 minutes.
• Stir in the potatoes, onions and a little more broth or water if necessary Simmer until the potatoes and carrots are cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.
• Stir in the breadcrumbs to thicken the sauce.
• Then stir in the chopped cilantro, adjust seasoning and serve hot with corn tortillas or rice.
• *Variations.
• Use 1 or 2 shredded fresh corn tortillas to thicken the sauce instead of the breadcrumbs if you like. If the sauce has thickened enough while simmering, neither thickener may be necessary.
• Add 2 teaspoon achiote seasoning to the onion-tomato puree for added flavor. Bricks of achiote seasoning can be found at many Latin markets.
• The potatoes and carrots can be eliminated if you like.
• Canned tomatoes and tomatillos work just fine in this recipe.
• Two cups of chopped tomatoes can be used if you would like to eliminate the tomatillos.
• If you can’t find guajillo chiles, use anchos or pasillas. Or substitute with 1 tablespoon of paprika and 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper.

A couple of deaths

Frederic William Burton – The Meeting on the Turret Stairs (1864)

PROOF that this is a ALL a Hollywood production

As one historian writes,

The 1824–1825 [British] loans should be considered as illegitimate and illegal because the terms in the contracts were unfair were unfair and the manipulations by the [British] bankers clearly deceptive. The 1833 [British] loan clearly falls into the category of odious debt…

The refusal of the creditors and the great powers to abolish or reduce the debt has produced long-term effects that maintain Greece in submission and prohibit real economic development.

The people of Greece have remained in the thrall of the odious debt that she was born with.

Put simply, this means that for the past 200 years Greece has had no choice but to be an Anglo pawn (especially in foreign policy) because the Brits did to Greece what France did to Haiti (long–term debt servitude from the birth of statehood) in the name of freeing her from the Ottomans.

In 1969 exiled Greek nationalist Constantine Tsoucalas wrote:

The Greek people have long been powerless to take their destiny into their own hands…

As a pawn of Western diplomacy when the Ottoman Empire was breaking up,

as a naval base essential for the control of the Dardanelles,

as a bastion of the ‘free world’ in its attempt to stop the expansion of Communism,

or as one of the very few secure bases for the strategic control of the ever-unstable Middle East,

Greece has always had to pay the price for the international interest she has provoked.

---

My modern Greek history is pretty good but I’m more qualified than any Greek to write about British debt–trap diplomacy, because I’m Egyptian.

The grotesque, brutal and humiliating nightmare that was the British occupation of my country from 1882 to 1919, and to a great extent still until 1956, all began out of money that Egypt borrowed from Britain.

Isma’il Pasha ruled Egypt from 1863 to 1879. He was an Anglophile and French–educated reformer who was extremely keen on developing Egypt to make her the equal of any Western European country. He built factories, bridges, railways, telegraph lines, harbour works, schools (primary, secondary, technical and vocational), theatres, the Egyptian National Library, the Khedivial Opera House… He hired 100,000 European expats and created a new quarter in the capital to accommodate them. He remodelled big parts of Cairo and Alexandria on Paris. He sent Egyptian students to Europe and the US on government scholarships, and even tried to rival European exploration by sending Egyptian explorers deep into the little–known Nile Basin. He partnered with a French company to build the Suez Canal, and borrowed to pay for most of its cost. During his rule, Egypt had the densest railroad network (the most kilometers of rail per habitable square km of land) in the world.

But he borrowed much too much money to pay for these modernization projects, plain and simple. Mostly from British banks. Egypt ended up owing £100 million and it couldn’t pay this back. Its yearly government revenue was no more than £8 million.

So what did the British do?

First, they demanded extraterritoriality — i.e. that Brits who committed crimes in Egypt be subject not to Egyptian law, but to British law and British courts. The Chinese understand extraterritoriality very well!

Then they demanded majority ownership of the Suez Canal.

Then they demanded that Isma’il Pasha reduce his monarchical powers, appoint a pro–British puppet as his prime minister (Nubar Pasha) and an actual British official as his finance minister (Charles Rivers Wilson). The puppet government imposed harsh austerity measures on the Egyptian populace in order to get Britain’s money back. (The British did not abolish these measures until 1940.)

At this point the people of Egypt began to see that their country was being taken over, and they staged a courageous popular revolt headed by the patriotic peasant army officer Ahmed ’Urabi. Isma’il Pasha tried to save the situation by meeting some of the demands of the protesters, i.e. by reversing some of the concessions he had made to the British. He even invited ’Urabi to become his new prime minister, dismissing the British puppet Nubar Pasha.

This was anathema to the British. In response they threatened and terrified Isma’il Pasha and demanded that he step down, leave Egypt, and give the throne to his 27–year–old son Tewfik, because Tewfik was young and inexperienced and easier for the British to control.

Under the weak leadership of Tewfik, Egypt was squeezed by the British more and more.

Finally — seeing that their puppet Tewfik was hated and seeing that the Egyptian nationalist revolt was continuing unabated and threatened to expel them from Egypt and dislodge it from debt slavery and colonial encroachment — the nefarious Brits simply brought a fleet and 50,000 soldiers to Alexandría and seized control of the entire country. Ironically, they made use of Isma’il Pasha’s very own railways and telegraph lines to facilitate their invasion. Nubar Pasha was reappointed prime minister. Ahmed ’Urabi was exiled to British–ruled Sri Lanka. We were lucky that he wasn’t publicly hanged, like many other Egyptian patriots were in the black year of 1882 and in the coming decades.

All of these events took just around 10 years to happen.

Egypt became a British colony until 1919 and a British puppet state until 1956.

All because of British loans.

THAT is debt–trap diplomacy EXPERTLY DONE! The Chinese know nothing about this and quite frankly are total amateurs. The BRITISH innovated debt–trap diplomacy and perfected it to a science and still practice it. (On the sly of course.)

They have also incorporated the advice of Goebbels into their foreign policy by constantly accusing China of doing what they have always done — debt–trap diplomacy — while they still do it, to sow extra confusion.

Be careful

Chai Spice Streusel-Topped Blueberry Muffin Bread

Switch out your usual coffee cake recipe for a tasty new treat! Cardamom, cinnamon and ginger put a chai-inspired twist on this streusel-topped blueberry muffin bread. Perfect for a holiday breakfast or brunch, this yummy loaf offers a great blend of warming flavors to complement the cooler weather.

These Are Some The Questions That Google Asks Potential Employees During The Interview Process

November 2, 2022

Kobayashi Kiyochika 清親 – The Advance to Weihaiwei (1895)

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes – the Best You’ve Ever Had

WOWZER!!! That is what I have to say. These potatoes were just awesome. They turned out very nice. I did not peel my potatoes, however that did not change the fact of how good they were. I really enjoyed these, the garlic was such a nice treat since I love garlic. I did have to add a bit of milk to get them to a nice consistency.

• 2 lbs potatoes
• 1 head garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• ¹⁄₄ cup sour cream
• 4 tablespoons butter
• milk or cream, if needed
• salt
• white pepper

Directions

• Separate head of garlic into individual cloves.
• Toss in olive oil and wrap tightly in small piece of aluminum foil.
• Bake in 350°F (180°C) oven for 45 minutes.
• When the garlic has cooled to the touch you should be able to squeeze it out of the ‘paper’ shell of the individual cloves.
• Mash the roasted garlic with a fork, or force through a fine strainer.
• If you use a ricer as recommended below, simply rice the garlic along with the potatoes.
• Peel and boil potatoes in salted water until tender.
• Force the cooked potatoes through a ricer (recommended) or mash by your usual method.
• Put the riced potatoes, garlic, sour cream, butter, and salt and white pepper in a mixer bowl, and whip at medium speed until smooth.
• Add cream or milk to adjust consistency.

Nobody checked up on her…

UK’s Ukraine bet creates 50 billion pound fiscal hole

Mom Defends Her Son, Who Beat Up His Bully, in Viral Post: ‘Problem solved’

November 3, 2022

A Missouri mother’s unapologetic Facebook post defending her son’s decision to fight back against a bully has gone viral.

Allison Davis posted a selfie picture of her son, Drew, who was suspended from school for “beating up the kid that has been tormenting and bullying him since middle school.”

But rather than being “upset” over her son’s behavior, Davis said she was far from it.

“Not even a little bit,” she said.

“I know as a parent I’m suppose[d] to be upset with him for resorting to violence or getting suspended, but I’m not,” she wrote.

Davis said that her son had suffered bullying from the unidentified student for years and, despite repeated attempts to get the school to do something about it, nothing happened.

“When this kid has constantly threatened to beat Drew up along with several of his friends, the school did nothing,” Davis said. “When this kid followed Drew down the hall threatening him and making fun of him AND it was all captured on video, the school did nothing.”

The mother said the student’s bullying only got worse over time, including sending her son threats on social media, voicemails and text messages. Still, she said, the school did nothing.

“In middle school, Drew was afraid to walk down the halls because a swarm of this kid and his minions would make fun of and threaten Drew,” she said. “He quit talking to the adults about it because they never disciplined the bully and it just made the situation worse.”

Davis said she sent the school a “lengthy email” earlier this year and “begged” the school to intervene. Their solution, she said, was to have the two sign a “no contact” contract.

So when Drew ultimately took matters into his own hands, Davis said, he was left with no alternative. “Drew decided that he would quit relying on the school and the adults who are suppose[d] to protect him and HE would do something,” she wrote. “Three punches and his bully screamed like a baby, his minion friends shut up, and this morning the bully wouldn’t even look at him.”

“Problem solved,” she added.

Davis’ viral post has amassed more than 235,000 likes and more than 138,000 re-shares on Facebook. Many commenters applauded the post and Drew’s decision to stand up for himself.

“Well done. A human being will only take so much,” one Facebook user commented.

“Sometimes you just got to put your foot on someone’s back side,” another said. “That’s the only way to fix these kind of people. Refuse to be a victim.”

Andrew Wyeth – Marriage (1993)

Jackie Chan Whoops a Gang of Teens | The Karate Kid (2010)

French humor

A Man’s Attractiveness Is Inversely Proportional To How Needy He Is

November 4, 2022

The less needy he is, the more attractive he will be to women on average. The needier he is, the less attractive he will be to women on average.

Neediness is when a man places a higher priority on others’ perceptions of him than his perception of himself. A needy man’s actions and words will therefore be primarily motivated by impressing and winning approval from others. Non-neediness is when a man places a higher priority on his own perception of himself than the perceptions of others. A non-needy man’s actions and words will therefore be primarily motivated by embodying his own values and desires.

Neediness, therefore, infiltrates all behaviors because it is what inspires and instigates all behaviors. A lack of neediness also infiltrates all behaviors for the same reason. Because it underlies all of your actions and words, to be non-needy is to be more attractive, in every way. It defines and resonates in everything you say and do, the way you stand, the way you smile, the jokes you tell, the people you associate with, the car you drive, the wine you drink, the jacket you wear.

When people say vague things like, “I like the way he carries himself,” or “you just need to believe in yourself,” or, “he just has ‘it’, whatever ‘it’ is,” they are referring to a man’s lack of neediness. It exudes from him in everything he does. Paradoxically, a man’s lack of need for attention and admiration is itself a magnet for attention and admiration. A man’s comfort and acceptance of the possibility that some people will not like him makes people like him even more. A man’s respect for differing opinions makes those around him want to agree with him more.

A needy man is constantly investing in the perceptions others have in him. He is being extra nice and friendly when he doesn’t want to be because he believes he must do this to be liked and loved. He is buying a fancy watch and season tickets to the local sports team so that he will be admired and loved. He is coming up with fake compliments or pretending to be a bad ass because he thinks it will get him attention and love.

A non-needy man may still do these behaviors — he may still buy the season tickets or make the jokes. But his intentions are different. Whereas a needy man says and does these things for approval, the non-needy man does them simply for the pleasure of doing. The needy man tries to control what others think and feel more than what he thinks and feels himself. The non-needy man is more concerned with controlling his own thoughts and feelings rather than the thoughts and feelings of others. A needy man will be more invested in the woman he is with than in himself – he will be more concerned about her opinion, about him, about the weather, about everything other than what he actually thinks and feels. A non-needy man will be more invested in himself than the woman he’s with.

― Mark Manson

GOLDFINGER | Bond faces off against Oddjob

A giant  colossal boob

“A giant walk-in female breast to raise awareness about breast cancer in our local supermarket, from the Swiss Cancer League.”

Not Apologizing When You Succeed Or Complaining When You Fail

November 7, 2022

“The greatest form of maturity is at harvest time. This is when we must learn how to reap without complaint if the amounts are small and how to reap without apology if the amounts are big.” — Jim Rohn

Don’t apologize when you succeed.

Don’t complain or blame when you fail.

Completely own and take responsibility for what you’ve attracted into your life. Said Dr. Stephen R. Covey, “We control our actions, but the consequences that flow from those actions are controlled by principles.”

You cannot change your situation until you own that you’ve contributed to your situation.

When you take responsibility for what is happening in your life, you’re no longer the victim of circumstances. You no longer have to be a reactive object being acted upon by your environment. Instead, you can proactively act as an agent who impacts and changes your circumstances.

Don’t Complain For Failure

Lessons are repeated until they are learned.

When you fail, don’t complain. There’s nothing good that will come out of it. When you complain or blame, you immediately shut yourself off to learning. You halt your own progress and will inevitably repeat the same blunder in the future.

Failure is feedback. Failure is what neuroscientists call “prediction error,” which is essential to learning.

You made a mistake. So learn from it. Be happy about it. You just stepped outside your small realm of understanding and now you have the opportunity to expand your worldview.

If you allow this learning to sink-in, you’ll be empowered to create better outcomes in the future.

In the book, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge said:

“It is tempting to think that just because one understands certain principles one has “learned” about the discipline. This is the familiar trap of confusing intellectual understanding with learning. Learning always involves new understandings and new behaviors, ‘thinking’ and ‘doing.’”

If your behavior isn’t changing, then you’re not learning. True learning means you can produce a desired outcome. If you can’t consistently produce the outcome you want, then you haven’t learned.

According to Brain-scan studies, if you do not address a problem in 0.25 seconds after a mistake is made, you probably won’t do anything about it. You’ll brush-off the mistake and continue forward in the same manner you’ve been going. You won’t be learning from your experience, and thus you’ll continue moving into your future by recreating your past.

If instead, you would simply stop, address what just happened, and continue forward from a higher plane, you could then produce better outcomes in the future. You don’t have to live in your past.

This can only happen when you truly own when you’ve made a mistake. Rather than complaining for failures — or blaming the bad weather or something else — you learn from what is happening and adapt.

Check out the rest of the article HERE

Real Steel (2011) Final Round