Ugh it might be imaginary but Lyme symptoms seem to be happening and they suck!

At least I have a sleeping baby and a quiet empty home and all I hear is the outside rain.

Last night I saw a s.african movie Chappy and slid down a slippery slope of reading about Die Antwoord and zef subculture.

It actually resolved itself better than I thought.

My medical practice has an app with an option for free video calls with a doctor or a nurse with a 5 min wait time – she was able to take a look – and yes it does look so much like Lyme disease that there is no point in blood tests.

She sent an antibiotic prescription to my nearby pharmacy right there and then from her app, and it was ready in an hour.

The pharmacist gave me enough free pills to last till Tuesday until I get my insurance sorted.

Yay, 21st century?

Finding a bulls eye rash a week after I was in a tick-infested area can’t be good.

This also might explain the perpetual tiredness.

Finding myself with no health insurance now that September has started and R changed jobs – and on a long weekend just adds to the anxiety.

The following is a statement from acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot on Friday’s announcement of the intended nomination by President Donald Trump of U.S. Rep. Jim Bridenstine to serve as the 13th NASA administrator:

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-statement-on-nomination-for-agency-administrator (via spacemayne)

Ugh I try to stay away from political posts with bad news, but a nomination of climate science denying politician – not an engineer or scientist – to lead NASA can’t be good.

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/09/trump-has-picked-politician-lead-nasa-good-thing

How to Distinguish Between Antifa, White Supremacists, and Black Lives Matter

I liked that he uses the methodical approach  for finding clarity in complicated issues.

One way forward is to distinguish between a group’s ends and its means. Diligently doing so can help anyone to formulate a defensible position, to better understand those who disagree, and to emphasize common ground that too often goes unrecognized.  

This helps when talking to your friends and relations who put you in a position where you have to “choose sides”, and it helps diffuse tensions.

different groups can choose equally objectionable means without becoming equivalent, because assessing any group requires analyzing their ends, not just their means.

this all brings it to

If you disagree with any of my characterizations about the means and ends of those groups, we are at odds over facts, not values, and I am open to seeing evidence that challenges my assessment of a complicated matter. Bearing that in mind can make hashing out the truth less fraught and more likely to proceed constructively and profitably.

he then goes on to analyzing and comparing BLM, Antifa and neo-Nazis (with conclusions that are unsurprising, but satisfying to read nonetheless), but the main conclusion to take away is the most laudable:

So come to whatever conclusions accord with your reason and conscience. But when expressing them, consider drawing as many distinctions as possible.

How to Distinguish Between Antifa, White Supremacists, and Black Lives Matter

It’s another beautiful early fall day, but I’m sad the summer is over.

I know it’s an unpopular opinion – the fall is arguably as pretty as the spring, has more pleasant days, and he bounty of food that’s in season is like nothing else. Also, Halloween!

But to me it looks like the nature is dying, even if temporarily, the days are noticeably shorter, and its getting clear that the all the summer plans made in the giddy excitement of spring when possibilities seemed boundless will now never materialize.