Sunny Saturday

I got 15 things ready to list last night but then I'd run out of night so I called it a night. I also practiced shakuhachi, and found that I can play "Edelweiss" with only having to bend one note. 

I woke up around 3 which was perfect since it seems to take me a nice round hour to get going when I start my day. If I have to, I can be from just waking up to out the door in something like 10 minutes but unless it's an extreme hurry like that it always takes me an hour. 

I had a UPS package that had to be taken to the UPS place before it closed at 5, and I had another package I could take without needing the trailer, to take to FedEx. That second one was packed and just needed to have the label printed and applied which I did. 

I left just a bit after 4 with these packages. It feels weird for it to be warm outside. I went to the UPS place and dropped that package off, then FedEx and dropped that one off, then rode up to 99 Ranch. I got two tea eggs and a can of coffee and had my eggs and coffee at one of the tables outside. It was busy because it always is this early on a Sunday and it was nice being among all the people bustling around and the seafood smells. 

Next I went up to Dai Thanh which was busy also. I looked through the whole place, finding interesting things and getting things I needed like a can of chicory coffee and some sriracha sauce and things like that. I looked at a lot of prices too just to keep on top of who charges what for various things. 

I stopped by H Mart on the way back and got some seared ahi sashimi and fish cake and that, with cucumber slices, was my dinner. Yum! 

I was going to stop by Tom's but then I remembered he's up in the mountains getting welding done on his truck. So I just got back here and buttoned up for the day/evening and had my fish and fish cake and cucumbers and so on. 

There's an interesting conversation on Reddit right now. It may have been on r/socialistRA I'm not sure, maybe on r/news. Something about how fear-filled "conservative America" is, and one person said that with some of these people "it's not just fear, they're just bad people". That really got me thinking because then you have to ask, what makes them bad people? It's fear, isn't it? 

There are a tiny portion of people who seem to be born "bad" in that they're psychopaths who don't have empathy. It never got built in. They tend to be bad but mainly they're unfeeling. This is still a tiny part of the populace and does not account for the pervasive, widespread, atmosphere of hatred and distrust in conservative America. The only thing that explains it is fear. Given that this is a very poorly-educated part of the population, they can be led to believe all kinds of crazy things. 

This is why even on Reddit, even among that part of the conservative population that's capable of operating a computer, you'll hear people talking about how they used to believe (or their friends still believe) that Jews have horns hidden under their hair or that their feet are actually chicken feet. And similar idiotic things about all sorts of groups. They believe in the Great Replacement Theory and that a pizza parlor with no basement has a huge basement where Hillary Clinton Herself is torturing children or whatever the latest permutation is. 

You take an ignorant population, then you tell them crazy theories like this, speaking some a position of power like a pulpit or the desk of the police chief or governor's office or what have you. You tell them that only conservative sources of "news" are trustworthy which is how the Nazis did it, telling them to only read Der Sturmer and the Volkischer Beobachter, and in fact to report any fellow Nazis you see reading anything else - they're traitors! 

So you get a fear-cult, that only tolerates staying within the fear-cult. You tell your followers that the coloreds are going to take over, and that the Jews run the banks, and all kinds of crazy things. And you make sure your followers never fraternize with anyone but fellow cult members. 

Let's say you tried to convince the average white American, now, that if they drank from the same water fountain a black person did, their their noses would turn blue and their ears would grow like those of a hound dog. They'd laugh at the idea, say they've been on a sports team with black members or a church group with black members or a summer camp etc. with black members and that was never known to happen. It'd ridiculous! 

But if the conservatives can re-segregate the country, which they're trying to do at present, they might be able to convince the next generation of crazy things like this. Then they can tell them to shoot any black person on sight because you can't have them around, they might drink from a water fountain and some innocent white kid will, and next thing you know their nose will turn blue and their ears grow like a hound dog's... 

And if all this sounds like an extreme level of stupid, welcome to America. 

I still need to do some things to my shinobue - the plastic Aulos one which is pretty horrible looking as it comes out of the box - for which I need to get some epoxy putty and I'm not really ready to try any busking with it yet. But I think I can be ready in time for Obon which is in early July. By then I might be a lot more up to speed on the shakuhachi also. 

I ordered a 6-hon shinobue (the one I have now is smaller/higher, an 8-hon) that's of a different make, about twice as expensive, but if I like the sound I might order an 8-hon of this other type. It's still not a natural bamboo one but made of a kind of bamboo composite. I guess I'll have it in a week or two. The order's about 5800 yen, so I'd say around $60 but since the yen's gone down it's probably more like $50 but I think the shipping will be about $25. This new type is colored black, and will only take a few bindings to "snazz" it up and if it makes a clearer sound it will put me that much closer to being out there busking.